Vol.1 f.082 recto

"You're talkative, mistress,' said Varden, pulling off his greatcoat, and looking at her askew.
"Taking the hint, sir,' cried Miggs, with a flushed face, "and thanking you for it most kindly, I will make bold to say, that if I give offence by having consideration for my mistress, I do not ask your pardon, but am content to get myself into trouble and to be in suffering.'
Here Mrs Varden, who, with her countenance shrouded in a large nightcap, had been all this time intent upon the Protestant Manual, looked round, and acknowledged Miggs's championship by commanding her to hold her tongue.
Every little bone in Miggs's throat and neck developed itself with a spitefulness quite alarming, as she replied, " Yes, mim, I will.'
"How do you find yourself now, my dear?' said the locksmith, taking a chair near his wife (who had resumed her book), and rubbing his knees hard as he made the inquiry.
" You're very anxious to know, an't you?' returned Mrs Varden, with her eyes upon the print. "You, that have not been near me all day, and wouldn't have been if I was dying!'
" My dear Martha -' said Gabriel.
Mrs Varden turned over to the next page; then went back again to the bottom line over leaf to be quite sure of the last words; and then went on reading with an appearance of the deepest interest and study.
"My dear Martha,' said the locksmith, "how can you say such things, when you know you don't mean them? If you were dying! Why, if there was anything serious the matter with you, Martha, shouldn't I be in constant attendance upon you?'
"Yes!' cried Mrs Varden, bursting into tears, " yes, you would. I don't doubt it, Varden. Certainly you would. That's as much as to tell me that you would be hovering round me like a vulture, waiting till the breath was out of my body, that you might go and marry somebody else.'
Miggs groaned in sympathy -- a little short groan, checked in its birth, and changed into a cough. It seemed to say,