‘I heard something; but I was very young then.’
‘My Joseph could tell you all about it better than I.’
‘Who is your Joseph?’
‘Well, sir, I’m ashamed to say it, but he’s my sweetheart, who’s been a-courting of me these fifty years.’
‘Not married yet?’
‘He’s a slow man is Joseph. I reckon he’d ‘a’ spoken out if he’d been able at last, but the paralysis took ‘m in the legs. He put off and off—and I encouraged him all I could; but he always was a slow man.’
‘Where is he now?’
‘Oh, he’s with his married sister. He sits in a chair, and when I can I run to ‘m and take him some backy or barley-sugar. He’s vastly fond o’ sucking sticks o’ barley-sugar. Gentlefolks as come here sometimes give me a shilling, and I lay that out on getting Joseph what he likes. He always had a sweet tooth.’
‘Then you love him still?’
The old woman looked at me with surprise. Her hand and head shook.