She went straight across to him.
“You see I’ve come!” she said.
“Ay, I see it!” he said, straightening his back, and looking at her with a faint amusement.
“Do you let the hens out now?” she asked.
“Yes, they’ve sat themselves to skin and bone,” he said. “An’ now they’re not all that anxious to come out an’ feed. There’s no self in a sitting hen; she’s all in the eggs or the chicks.”
The poor mother hens; such blind devotion! even to eggs not their own! Connie looked at them in compassion. A helpless silence fell between the man and the woman.
“Shall us go i’ th’ ’ut?” he asked.
“Do you want me?” she asked, in a sort of mistrust.
“Ay, if you want to come.”
She was silent.
“Come then!” he said.
And she went with him to the hut. It was quite dark when he had shut the door, so he made a small light in the lantern, as before.
“Have you left your underthings off?” he asked her.
“Yes!”
“Ay, well, then I’ll take my things off too.”
He spread the blankets, putting one at the side for a coverlet. She took off her hat, and shook her hair. He sat down, taking off his shoes and gaiters,