"Grandmother, 'ee could never, never understand. I'll try and make 'ee, but I know——" Betty shook her head, "'ee never will. 'Twasn't Allan——"
"Allan," Mrs. Hanson lifted her two hands.
"'Twasn't Allan, I did see in the old garden, but a ghost I see him and others, fine ladies and gentlemen all in strange clothing, Grandmother, and Allan he were for ever digging, he in his old brown suit wi' the brass buckles to his shoes and——"
"Betty Hanson, stop, stop, this minit; not another word will I sit here and listen to, I hev made up my mind.
"This day, this man, this Allan, as 'ee do so shamelessly call him, made an offer to me. A fine offer that I did greatly mistrust. 'Tis this—take the child—away he said, take her far away, don't worrit her wi' Abram Lestwick, and I will allow 'ee and her tu, the thirty-five shillings a week, the same as Abram's money and a cottage all for nothin' so as 'ee du take she far away from Homewood."
"Oh! oh! he said that?"
"Aye he did, my maid, which du mean as he be tired of 'ee, tired, 'ee hear me, tired as men du tire of women like 'ee."
Betty lifted her head slowly, she looked at the grandmother and her pretty face blazed with sudden anger. She rose:
"Grandmother, 'ee be a wicked woman, a bad despiteful wicked woman. What 'ee hev said, shames 'ee more, more than it does me, shames 'ee, and—and——" she broke down suddenly, she sank back sobbing on to the chair, she rocked to and fro. "'Ee could never, never understand 'twasn't Allan, yet 'twas Allan and I know he were something to I, something very, very dear and precious he were to I. But oh! oh! 'ee could never understand."
"I du understand this," Mrs. Hanson said, "I do understand that 'ee shall marry Abram Lestwick. An honest and upright man, and 'ee shall never take money from him as 'ee du most shamelessly call Allan, never, nor I. Money taken from he would choke me, 'twould spring up like the tares and choke me."