"
It was powerful pleading, and Patience felt it.
"Aye, Master Miller," she said, "but you see I'm bound not to leave
Steadfast till he is married. He could not get on no ways without
me."
"Then why--a plague on it--don't he wed and have done with it?"
"He cannot," said Patience, "till he has made up enough to build up
our old house, but that won't be yet awhile--for years maybe; and he
could not do it without me to help him."
"And what's to become of you when you've let your best years go by a-
toiling for him, and your chance is gone by, and his wife turns you
to the door?" said Master Luck, not very delicately.
"That God will provide," said Patience, reverently. "Anyway, I must
cleave to Steadfast though 'tis very good of you, Master Luck and
Master Andrew, and I never could have thought of such a thing, and I
am right sorry for the little ones."
"If you would only come and see them!" burst out the poor young
father. "You never see such a winsome little poppet as Bess. And
they be so young now, they'd never know you were not their own
mother.
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