Abram had taken off his hat, he was twisting it between his restless fingers, plucking at the felt, bending the brim. Mrs. Hanson stared resolutely at his face.
"Wun’t ’ee draw a chair and set down, Abram?" she said. "An’ put your hat down!"
He nodded, he put his hat down and sat by the table. Betty’s face was white and set hard, her small round chin was thrust out obstinately.
Abram looked at her out of the corner of his eyes.
"I du hear good accounts of the new people at the Manor," he said.
"Aye, a sweet and pleasant spoken lady and the daughter of a Lord!" said Mrs. Hanson. "And Mr. Allan Homewood, who I did speak with the very day he came here first, a very nicely spoken gentleman, I’m sure!" She looked at Betty.
Betty sat down, she stared straight before her, she knew that these were but preliminaries, that which they were saying now mattered nothing at all. Her grandmother poured out the tea. Abram took his cup, he twisted it round and round in the saucer.
"I see Mrs. Colley as I passed the door, picking slugs she were! She asked me in to tea, she said there was a fresh biscuit of ’Lizbeth’s baking!"
It was meant for conversation, and not as a reflection on the present tea table, which was guiltless of a currant biscuit.
"A wunnerful hand at cooking, ’Lizbeth Colley be!" he said.
Mrs. Hanson shrugged her shoulders, "Hev you ever noticed her teeth, Abram, terribul teeth they be!"
"Terribul!" he agreed; he looked at the girl facing him. He could not see her teeth, for her small rosebud mouth was tightly compressed, but he had seen them and remembered them for the whitest pearls he had ever seen.
"A rare hand at fashioning and managing, ’Lizbeth Colley," he remarked. He paused to drink with his mouth full of bread and butter. It was not a pretty exhibition, but neither Mrs. Hanson nor Betty remarked it. Bread and butter and tea taken at one meal had to mingle, sooner or later; why not sooner than later?
The meal went on, Abram smacked his lips noisily. Mrs. Hanson tried to make conversation.
"A bit of luck for an old man like Markabee getting a permanent job at his time of life! I wonder how long du they think they’ll keep he?" she asked.
"Though I du admit very agile he be for his years!"