"He's an
impudent thing," and again she relapsed into silence, just when he
thought his pleasure was going to be complete.
"Oh, they'll maybe put Aggie Lowrieson on your side o' the table," he
volunteered, glad that at last she had shown some feeling.
"They can keep Aggie Lowrieson too," she said shortly. "I dinna' want
her. I'll get on fine mysel'," and she said no more.
He talked of his new venture all the way home, and he felt more and more
hurt because she did not reply as eagerly and volubly as he wished.
"It'll be great goin' doon the pit," he said, again feeling that he was
going to be priggish. "Pickin' stanes is a' guid enough for a laddie for
a wee while, an' for women, but you're the better to gang into the pit
when you're the age. You get mair money for it. Of course, it's hard
work, but I'll be earnin' as much as twa shillin's a day in the pit, and
that'll be twelve shillin's a week."
But Mysie could not be drawn to look at his rosy prospects, and still
kept silent, so that the last few hundred yards were covered in silence.
At the end of the row where they always parted, he could not resist
adding a thrust to his usual "good-night.
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