“Won’t they, though!” retorted his wife, who, though as sore at heart as he, thought it necessary to assume an aggressive tone. “Who do you suppose ’ull ever believe as the girl ’ud be so simple as to be took in and think herself married when she warn’t married? They don’t believe it in Darchester, I can tell ’ee. There, they’ve a-gone and sent her away from her situation; and Julia—why I can see as my own cousin Julia don’t half believe her story—she’ve wrote to say she ’opes I’ll come and take her away at once, as she don’t like her for to be comin’ to the house.”
“Well, write an’ tell her as you will take her away,” returned Frizzell in a kind of muffled roar. “I bain’t ashamed o’ my child, whatever other folks may be. Write an’ tell her as Father an’ Mother ’ull be fain to have her home, and won’t let nobody worrit her when she d’ get there. I’ll soon shut their mouths if they try to make out as she bain’t a-tellin’ the trewth!”
“Now, Father, you listen to I.” And here Martha laid both her hands upon his great round shoulders and fairly shook him in her eagerness. “I bain’t a-goin’ for to let her tell the trewth—not all the trewth. I’m willin’ she should say she got married to a soldier unbeknown to us, but I don’t mean to let the rest come out. I’m goin’ for to give out as he were killed in the war. That way he’ll be done wi’, so to speak—nobody ’ull be axin’ questions about en, or wonderin’ why Susan have come home.”
“Bless my heart!” he ejaculated, staring at his eager little wife. “Why, what a tale! I don’t much fancy tellin’ sich a pack o’ lies; nay, now”—and he rolled his head obstinately—“I bain’t a-goin’ to tell ’em. I’ll speak the trewth, and knock down them as says contrairy—I’ll be danged if I won’t!”
“Don’t ’ee be sich a fool, Father. You’ll do jist as I tell ’ee. I’ve al’ays held up my head, and Susan, she’ve al’ays been a bit high, an’ have a-kep’ herself to herself, and there be folks as ’ud be only too glad to go a-crowin’ over we, an’ a-backbitin’ of we. I bain’t a-goin’ for to give ’em no cause. You keep your mouth shut—that’s all as you’ve got to do. Keep your mouth shut, and if folks d’ come a-worrettin’ of ’ee wi’ questions, don’t ’ee let on for to understand. You be hard enough o’ hearin’ at all times, and you can jist make out to be a bit harder. You’ll have to do as I do bid ’ee, for I’ve telled Mrs. Cross jist now the story about Susan’s husband bein’ killed in the war, and his name an’ all—”