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myself quite on one side, I don’t think he will choose either of you.’

‘I have never expected it—thought of it!’ moaned Retty. ‘But O! I wish I was dead!’

The poor child, torn by a feeling which she hardly understood, turned to the two other girls who came upstairs just then.

‘We be friends with her again,’ she said to them. ‘She thinks no more of his choosing her than we do.’

So the reserve went off, and they were confiding and warm.

‘I don’t seem to care what I do now,’ said Marian, whose mood was tuned to its lowest bass. ‘I was going to marry a dairyman at Stickleford, who’s asked me twice; but—my soul—I would put an end to myself rather’n be his wife now! Why don’t ye speak, Izz?’

‘To confess, then,’ said Izz, ‘I made sure today that he was going to kiss me as he held me; and I stayed still against his breast, hoping and hoping, and never moved at all, But he did not. I don’t like biding here at Talbothays any longer! I shall go home.’

The air of the sleeping-chamber seemed to