"Joyce is sick again."
"I think thou might hev dropped in and seen if ta could help them, anyway."
"Mebbe thou hesn't got all ta stock of human kindness there is in t' world! I did drop in, and I hev paid Sarah her full wage every Saturday since Steve's trouble, whether she earned it or not. I thought if ta didn't like it I could spare t' few shillings mysen."
"Thou knew right well I'd like it. But thou art as cross as two sticks, Ben, this morning. If ta doesn't get married soon thou wilt spoil on my hands. I hev seen t' day when this morning's work would hev suited thee to a T."
Then Ben put his hand on Jonathan's shoulder, and said, "It does suit me. I am as glad as can be." And the two men looked at each other a minute in silence, and then parted with a smile full of assurance and content. It was only that they had found words too blundering a vehicle to express emotions so strong and complex. But where the tongue fails, the glance of the eye and the pressure of a hand says in a moment what many words only darken and confuse.
That day Jonathan had a great deal to do, but
