Mistress Wayne shook her head, with a bairn's impatience, and tightened her hold of the Sexton's hand. "I'm not hungry, I thank thee—not hungry at all," she murmured.
But Nanny would take no denial, and at length she coaxed her visitor to break her fast.
"That's likelier," growled the little old woman, as she threw fresh peats on the fire. "Victuals is a rare stay-by when sorrow's to be met. Now, Mistress, warm yourseln a bit, an' then I'll see ye safe between sheets."
The peat-warmth, following her long exposure to the wind, set Mistress Wayne a-nodding; and the Sexton, seeing how closely sleep had bound her in his web, took her in his arms with a strength of gentleness that was all his own, and carried her to the bed-chamber above, and left her safe in Nanny's care.
"She slumbers like a year-old babby," said Nanny, coming down again, by and by.
"Oh, ay? Well, she looked fair worn out ai' weariness. What ails her?" answered Witherlee, filling his pipe afresh and watching Nanny's shadow go creeping up the wall as she stepped in front of the rushlight burning on the table.
"Tha's heard nowt, I'm thinking, o' what chanced i' th' kirkyard?"
"Nay, I've heard nowt. I've been dozing, like, by th' ingle, an' niver a sound I heard save th' death-bell tha wen ringing for Wayne o' Marsh. Ay, it seemed i' tune wi' my thowts, did th' bell, for I war thinking o' th' owd feud 'twixt Wayne an' Ratcliffe. 'Tis mony a year sin' that war staunched, lass, but I can see 'em fight fair as if 'twere yesterday."
"Trust thee to doze! I wonder whiles what thou hast to show for thyseln, Luke Witherlee, that I do, while th' wife is ringing her arm off," snapped Nanny, her temper sharpened by the long day's work and sorrow.
"Show for myseln?" said he, with a sort of weary patience. "Nowt—save that I can plank a grave better nor ony Sexton fro' this to Lancashire. An' that's summat i' these times, for we shall see what we shall see now Wayne o' Marsh is killed. Ay, for sure; there'll be need of a good grave-digger i' Marshcotes parish.—What's been agate, like, i' th' kirkyard? I knew there war summat bahn to happen for I heard th' death-watch as plain as noonday."