‘’Ees,’ agreed Isaac unwillingly, ‘oh, ’ees, it ’ud be a very good thing; but I—’
He broke off, gazing at her with an expression almost akin to terror.
‘Do you suppose for a moment,’ she cried with spirit, ‘that I would ever consent to put a stranger in my dear Elias’s place? Could you—you who have been his friend so long, bear to see one of the Branston counter-jumpers master here? I wonder at you, Isaac Sharpe!’
‘Nay now,’ protested the farmer; ‘I did n’t say I wished no such thing, Mrs. Fiander. I said ’t was my opinion as you’d be forced to take a second, and you might do worse nor think o’ John Hardy.’
‘Pray, is n’t he a counter-jumper?’ interrupted Rosalie vehemently.
‘Well, there’s others besides he,’ returned Sharpe weakly.
‘Whom would you choose, then?’ cried she. ‘Wilson, to drink, and race away my husband’s hard-earned money? Andrew Burge, perhaps, whom you drove out of this house with your own hands? Or that little ferret-faced Samuel Cross—he’d know how to manage a dairy-farm, would n’t he? You’d like to see him strutting about, and giving orders here? I tell you what it is, Isaac Sharpe, if you have no respect for dear Elias’s memory, you should be glad that I have.’
‘Who says I have n’t respect for ’Lias’s memory?’ thundered Isaac, now almost goaded into a fury. ‘I’ve known ’en a deal longer nor you have, Widow Fiander, and there’s no one in this world as thought more on him. All I says is—I bain’t a marryin’ man—’Lias knowed I were n’t never a marryin’ man. I don’t believe,’ added Isaac, with an emphatic thump on the table, ‘I don’t believe as if ’Lias were alive he’d expect it of me.’
‘But he’s dead, you see,’ returned Rosalie with a sudden pathetic change of tone—‘he’s dead, and that is why everything is going wrong. I should n’t think of making a change myself if I did n’t feel it was the only thing to do. You loved Elias; you knew his ways; you would carry on the work just as he used to do—it would n’t be like putting a stranger in his place. I would n’t do it if I could help it,’ she added, sobbing; ‘but I think we—we should both try to do our duty by Elias.’
Isaac, visibly moved, rolled his eyes towards her and heaved a mighty sigh.