It was late and all the other company had gone; the dips were beginning to die out one by one, and tall shadows began to creep over the oak-beamed ceiling and dark, rum-fumed walls.
Presently French rose to his feet.
“Ah, well,” he said, “I reckon we’ll go home, Sue. Good rest to you, Hal.”
The landlord nodded.
“Same to you, Master French, and you, too, mistress,” he said, without taking his pipe out of his mouth.
Sue smiled and picked up her baby who was crawling on the long seat beside her.
“Good-night, Hal,” she said, and then added, looking round the room affectionately: “It’s almost like the old days to be all here together again.”
“All?” murmured Hal bitterly.
Sue did not hear him but went on gaily.
“Yet I would not change,” she said. “These days are happier, I with my man and my little one.”