There was a pause. Merle glanced at him involuntarily, as if she could
hardly believe her ears. Could he be in earnest? Was the engineer of the
Nile Barrage to sink into a country blacksmith?
She sighed. But she felt she must not dishearten him. And at last she
said with an effort: "It would help to pass the time, I daresay. And
perhaps you would get into the way of sleeping better." She looked out
of the window with tightly compressed lips.
"And if I do that, Merle, we can't stay on in this house. In fact a
great box of a place like this is too big for us in any case--when you
haven't even a maid to help you."
"But do you know of any smaller house we could take?"
"Yes, there's a little place for sale, with a rood or two of ground. If
we had a cow and a pig, Merle--and a few fowls--and could raise a
bushel or two of corn--and if I could earn a few shillings a week in the
smithy--we wouldn't come on the parish, at any rate. I could manage the
little jobs that I'd get--in fact, pottering about at them would do me
good. What do you say?"
Merle did not answer; her eyes were turned away, gazing fixedly out of
the window.
"But there's another question--about you, Merle. Are you willing to sink
along with me into a life like that? I shall be all right. I lived in
just such a place when I was a boy. But you! Honestly, Merle, I don't
think I should ask it of you." His voice began to tremble; he pressed
his lips together and his eyes avoided her face.
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