thought.)

'No, sir, I anna. Nor yet I anna got no myrrh, aloes, nor cassher.
There's nought in my kitchen but a wold useless cat and an o'erdruv man
of six-and-sixty, a pot of victuals not yet simmering, and a gentleman
as ought to know better than to bring a girl to Undern and ruin her--a
poor innocent little creature.'

'Me again,' said Hazel. She pondered on the remark and flushed. 'Maybe
I'd best go,' she thought. Yet only vague instinct stirred her to this,
and all her soul was set on staying.

'Never shall it be said'--Andrew's voice rose like a preacher's--'never
shall it be said as a young female found no friend in Andrew Vessons;
never shall it be said'--his voice soared over various annoyed
exclamations of Reddin's--'as a female went from this 'all different
from what she came.'

'Shut up, Vessons!'

But Vessons was, as he would have phrased it himself, 'in full
honey-flow,' and not to be silenced.

'Single she be, and single she'd ought to stay. This 'ere rubbitch of
kissing and clipping!'

'But, Vessons, if there were no children gotten, the world'd be empty.'

'Let 'un be. 'Im above'll get a bit of rest, nights, from their sins.'