“Why me?”
“Well, I’ve took a fancy to you.”
“Very kind of you, I’m sure,” said the girl, and laughed.
Gosling kissed her before he left.
7
He returned the next afternoon and helped to cut and stack sainfoin, and afterwards he watched the young woman milk the cows. It was so late by the time everything was finished that he was persuaded to stay the night.
In the new Putney house three women wondered what had happened to “father.” They grew increasingly anxious for some days, and even tried in a feeble way to search for him. By the end of the week they accepted the theory that he too had died of the plague.