"Listen to me," Allan said and his voice was more gentle and quiet, he looked into the keen, hard, old face. "Listen to me, Mrs. Hanson, you are Betty's grandmother. I believe you are her only living relative. If you think so highly of thirty-five shillings a week and of a cottage—I will make you an offer—" He paused, "I will undertake to pay to you as Betty's guardian, a sum that will equal the amount of Abram Lestwick's wages. I will find a cottage for you—not here—not near here even—and you shall have it rent free, so that Betty may live with you and that you shall not torment her further about this man Lestwick. Do you understand? I will give to you and to Betty all that Abram Lestwick could give, the money and the cottage! And you and the girl shall go away from here—away for good. She is young and she is beautiful, she will surely find many eager to marry her, and she shall choose and pick among them for herself. Do you understand, do I make myself plain?"
"Plain—aye, plain!" she said; under the black bodice the thin old breast rose and fell, she gripped the rails of the gate and stared into his face.
"And why—why are 'ee willing to do this, give this to Betty Hanson, Mr. Homewood?"
"To save her from marriage with a man I dislike and distrust, as much as she does—for that reason and that reason alone!"
"'Ee be mighty generous, Mr. Homewood!" Her hard voice quivered with suspicion, and yet—yet she looked him full in the eyes and he looked back at her and there was no shame, no confusion, nothing of the look of one who has something on his conscience.
"I—I do not understand—" she said slowly, "I do not understand!"
"No, I do not suppose you do understand. Shall we leave it at that? My offer holds good, accept it and make a happy home for the child—but not here."
"'Ee du seem mighty set on it not being here!" she said thoughtfully. "Mighty set 'ee du be. Does the maid know your intentions to she, sir?"
"No, I had no such intentions just now, the thought has only just come into my mind."
She nodded slowly. He had said that she could not understand and he was right. Whoever heard the like before? Thirty-five shillings a week and a cottage and all—all for nothing! Whoever heard the like before? Certainly not Mrs. Hanson.