"
"So she told me, but likewise that he is a broken man and sickly, and
had offered to restore her pledge."
Patience could not deny it, though she felt hotly indignant.
"She charged me to give it back to you," added the uncle; "and to bid
you tell the young man that we are beholden to you both; but that
since the young folk are to be wedded to-morrow morn, and then to set
forth for Worcestershire, there is no time for leave-takings."
"I do not wonder!" exclaimed Patience, "that she has no face to see
us. She that has been like a child or a sister to us, to leave us
thus! O my brother!"
"Come, come, my good woman, best not make a pother." Poor Patience's
homely garb and hard-worked looks shewed little of the yeoman class
to which she belonged. "You've done your duty by the maid and here's
the best I have to make it up."
Patience could not bring herself to take the bag, and he dropped it
into her basket "I am sorry for the young man, your brother, but he
knew better than to think to wed her as he is.
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