"An' vat about de voman?" asked Bateese, who had just come down from Helen's cottage.
"They'd set her free, and she's hanging round till her ole man gets off," said Hardman.
"Mebbe," commented his wife.
"Yes, mebbe," said Hardman. "They're not dead anyway. The Corporal will come back again in time, but Latimer and his wife mayn't. Why should they? They're gone three months. What 'ud be the use?"
"We'll miss the woman worst," said his wife. "She's like one of ourselves. It's too bad, when there's so few of us."
"If my man turns up I won't care much about the rest," said Mrs. Bond. "Though I did hear Mrs. Manning say that if it hadn't been for Latimer's wife, when she first come, she didn't know what she would 'a done. But my! She had a sperit. She kep' the ole fellow in his place I tell you."
"Vas she de boss?" Bateese asked.
"Inside that little box cabin of hers she was."
"What about the obeyin' bizness, as the prayer book says?" enquired Hardman.
"Inside he did the obeying—outside, she did."