Page:Fletcher--Where Highways Cross.djvu/65

 eight sorts of flowers in it, to say nothing of a humming-bird perched at the top of an artificial spray of some tropical plant.

"It's a bit heavy, to be sewer," said Mally. "But Lord love ye, everybody knows 'at pride's painful. If ye want to be i' t' fashion you mun mak' up your mind to be a bit uncomfortable."

They then set out for the chapel along the road which Elisabeth had travelled with Hepworth as they returned from Sicaster after the statute-hiring fair. Mally carried a hymn-book in one hand and a clean pocket-handkerchief, scented with dried lavender, in the other. She informed Elisabeth that she had a paper of mint lozenges in her pocket, and that she never went to chapel without them.

"There's nowt like hevin' summat to suck at," she said. "When t' preycher's busy wi' his firstly and secondly I can bide, but when he comes to t' thirdly and lastly I mun hev' summat i' my mouth, or else I get fidgety. So if tha' wants a lozenge, lass, tha' mun nudge my elbow, and I'll gi' thi one."