“I don’t know I’m sure,” she replied. “David he’s not earnin’ more nor ten shillin’ a week, nor likely to for a good bit, and Rebecca, she wouldn’t be much good at keepin’ house on such a little money. ’Tis a child, Miss Ball, nothin’ but a child. There, if you was to see the antics she do carry on wi’ David! I do truly wonder the chap has so much patience wi’ her. Sweetbriar Lane is where they do always go. ’Tis Coortin’ Lane, you know—so they do call it hereabouts—and a-many do go a-walkin’ there of a Sunday an’ they do tell I that Rebecca do seem to care for nothin’ but teasin’ and tormentin’ the poor boy. Mary Vacher—e-es, ’twas Mary—did tell I last week as she an’ her young man was a-walkin’ in Sweetbriar Lane o’ Sunday and she did see our little maid a-playin’ all manner o’ tricks on Davy. One minute she’d be runnin’ round a haystack, then when the poor chap ’ud run after her she’d trip off and hide behind an elder-bush. Mary did say she’d go dancin’ from one place to another just lettin’ him nearly catch her but poppin’ off the minute he’d come close.”
“Well, there now,” commented Susan, “it do seem childish, don’t it?”
“It be reg’lar nonsense I do tell her,” said Mrs. Legg severely; then relaxing—“but Mary Vacher did say ’twas really so good as a play to watch ’em. Her an’ her own young man stood lookin’ arter ’em a long while, she said. There, Rebecca ’ud go flyin’ up the path same as a bird or a butterfly; an’ every now an’ again she’d stop and smile round at Davy an’ beckon him, an’ off ’ud run poor Davy, hammerin’ arter her so hard as he could, an’ just as he’d be holdin’ out them great long arms o’ his off she’d go again. An’ she’s real fond o’ him, mind ye—’tisn’t as if she looked at anybody else.”
“Ye did ought to speak to her a bit sharp, mum,” said Miss Ball severely, “you did ought to scold her for it. They bain’t sensible, sich goin’s on.”
“Scold her!” ejaculated the other. “I mid just so well speak to the wall. I mid just so well expect that there settle to hear reason. She don’t mind me, what’s her own grandmother, no more nor if I was the cat. She haven’t got no respect for nothin’. I’ve see’d her pinch David’s arm when they was a-walkin’ up the church steps one day——”
“Never!” ejaculated the scandalised Susan.
“She did though! And she’ll carry on her antics up in the churchyard yonder—you know the churchyard up Sweetbriar Lane?—she’d as soon play off her tricks there as on the Downs. Even when she was a little bit of a maid she’d never run past the lychgate same as the other children—she’d go a-swingin’ round the pillars or a-climbin’ on the trestles, or she’d maybe pop through the gate and put her face up again the bars and dare David to kiss her. He dursn’t go nigh the place, poor boy, an’ she knowed that very well.”
“Well, well!” sighed Susan Ball, “I wouldn’t like to say nothin’ unkind o’ your granddaughter, Mrs. Legg, but ’tis to be hoped as she’ll not come to a bad end, mum.”
“’Tis to be hoped so,” agreed Mrs. Legg, “but there’s no knowin’.” She echoed Susan’s sigh but smiled the while; indeed it was evident that she looked on the misdemeanours of Rebecca with a certain tolerance, one might almost say satisfaction, as distinguishing her from the ordinary run of maidens.
Meanwhile Rebecca and David, having finished a somewhat discursive progress up Sweetbriar Lane, emerged on the Downs beyond. Here Rebecca took up a position on a sunny little gorse-crowned hillock and despatched him to a neighbouring copse with orders to collect some of the wild strawberries which grew there in abundance.