Baby John had his fingers in his mother's hair.
* * * * *
Greatorex rose. "You'll not get mooch out o' Ally as long as t' kids are about. Yo'd best coom wi' mae into t' garden and see t' loopins."
She went with him.
He was silent as they threaded the garden path together. She thought,
"I know why I like him."
They came to a standstill at the south wall where the tall blue lupins rose between them, vivid in the tender air and very still.
Greatorex also was still. His eyes looked away over the blue spires of the lupins to the naked hillside. They saw neither the hillside nor anything between.
When he spoke his voice was thick, almost as though he were in love or intoxicated.
"I knaw what yo mane about those thorn-trees. 'Tisn' no earthly beauty what yo see in 'em."
"Jim," she said, "shall I always see it?"