‘Kit Ines was left sleeping in the house?’

‘Snoring, I dare say:  He don’t drink on duty.’

‘He must be kept on duty.’

‘Drink or that kind of duty, it’s a poor choice.’

‘You’ll take him in charge, Madge.’

‘I’ve got a mistress to look after.’

‘You’ve warmed to her.’

’That’s not new; Mr. Woodseer.  I do trust you, and you his friend.  But you are the minister’s son, and any man not a great nobleman must have some heart for her.  You’ll learn.  He kills her so because she’s fond of him—­loves him, however he strikes.  No, not like a dog, as men say of us.  She’d die for him this night, need were.  Live with her, you won’t find many men match her for brave; and she’s good.  My Sally calls her a Bible saint.  I could tell you stories of her goodness, short the time though she’s been down our way.  And better there for her than at that inn he left her at to pine and watch the Royal Sovereign come swing come smirk in sailor blue and star to meet the rain—­would make anybody disrespect Royalty or else go mad!  He’s a great nobleman, he can’t buy what she’s ready to give; and if he thinks he breaks her will now, it’s because she thinks she’s obeying a higher than him, or no lord alive and Kit Ines to back him ’d hold her.  Women want a priest to speak to men certain times.  I wish I dared; we have to bite our tongues.  He’s master now, but, as I believe God’s above, if he plays her false, he’s the one to be brought to shame.  I talk.’

‘Talk on, Madge,’ said Gower, to whom the girl’s short-syllabled run of the lips was a mountain rill compared with London park waters.

’You won’t let him hurry her off where she’ll eat her heart for never seeing him again?  She prays to be near him, if she’s not to see him.’

‘She speaks in that way?’

’I get it by bits.  I’m with her so, it’s as good as if I was inside her.  She can’t obey when it goes the wrong way of her heart to him.’

’Love and wisdom won’t pull together, and they part company for good at the church door,’ said Gower.  ‘This matrimony’s a bad business.’

Madge hummed a moan of assent.  ’And my poor Sally ’ll have to marry.  I can’t leave my mistress while she wants me, and Sally can’t be alone.  It seems we take a step and harm’s done, though it’s the right step we take.’

‘It seems to me you’ve engaged yourself to follow Sally’s lead, Madge.’

‘Girls’ minds turn corners, Mr. Woodseer.’

He passed the remark.  What it was that girls’ minds occasionally or habitually did, or whether they had minds to turn, or whether they took their whims for minds, were untroubled questions with a young man studying abstract and adoring surface nature too exclusively to be aware of the manifestation of her spirit in the flesh, as it is not revealed so much by men.  However, she had a voice and a face that led him to be thoughtful over her devotedness to her mistress, after nearly losing her character for the prize-fighter, and he had to thank her for invigorating him.  His disposition was to muse and fall slack, helpless to a friend.  Here walked a creature exactly the contrary.  He listened to the steps of the dissimilar pair on the detonating pavement, and eyed a church clock shining to the sun.