Perhaps something of that thought shone in the man's eyes as he stooped to kiss her upturned face.
So Meg put down her bunch of home flowers, and looked round for something to put them in.
"They are too many for a vase," she said, "or a jug either. I wonder if there's a basin?"
Jem went to a cupboard in the corner and produced a nice-sized one, neither too large nor too small.
"Oh!" said Meg, gratified; "what a lot of basins and things, Jem; I shall make you some puddings in those."
"I reckon you will," he answered smiling.
She bent over her flowers, touching them with soft tender touch, for she loved each one, and he stood looking on.
Could this sweet girl really belong to him? Then a thought came over him with a pang, of what the women grew into around them--the toiling, hard-working, ill-fed, sometimes ill-used women.
"But Meg will never grow like that," he thought; "not while I love her, and God loves her; and His love is a never-ending love."
"Ain't you going in t'other room to take off yer bonnet, my dear?" he asked; "or are the flowers too precious?"
"Don't you see," she answered, smiling, "my bonnet won't fade, and these will; so I thought I would do them first."
"I told mother to come and take a cup o' tea with us at five o'clock; it must be near that now."
He drew out a clumsy, old-fashioned watch from his pocket and glanced at it.
"It wants nigh on twenty minutes to, my girl, so if we mean to get out our things we must be quick."
"These are done now," she answered, gathering up the bits and putting them into the fire, where they crackled up into a blaze and made the kettle boil up in good earnest.
So she took off her bonnet, and when she came back Jem had put a small square hamper on the table ready for her to open.
"Do you think mother would like to see what my mistress has given me?" she asked a little timidly; for "mother" was a new word to her lips; hitherto it had always been "your mother."
"I dare say she would, Meg; and tea don't matter for a few minutes."
So Meg left the hamper untouched and went to the cupboard where she had seen the cups, and began to set three on a small tray she found there.
"Here is some milk, Jem!" she exclaimed; "how kind your mother is; and some bread and butter too all ready."