As though in obedience to her unspoken wish, Sol, after another pause, proceeded to set forth his circumstances.
“I bain’t much of a match for ’ee, I dare say—”
Grammer shifted uneasily on her seat: she was sorry to hear that.
“But you mid go further an’ fare worse. I’m earnin’ sixteen shillin’ a-week wi’ the promise of a rise at Lady Day.”
The battered sailor hat nodded approvingly in the shadow.
“I’ve not got no dibs save—”
“That’s bad,” commented Grammer inwardly; “a few dibs ’ud ha come in handy.”
“In fact I tramped here from Bridport wi’ just the clothes on my back.”
“I don’t like that,” said Mrs Roberts to herself; “there were never no tramps in our family.”
“’Twas my mother’s long sickness what cleared out all my savin’s. I couldn’t deny the poor wold body anythin’.”