But Mrs.
M'Kree, not understanding where the joke came in, said in a reproachful tone: "My dear, it was not a laughing matter to me, either then or now; for when one is married what affects one's husband affects one's self also, and that sometimes in a very disagreeable fashion." "Please forgive me for laughing!" cried Katherine.

"But Oily Dave is such a slippery old rogue, and sometimes he overreaches even himself." Then she told Mrs.M'Kree about the disappearance of the lard, and how she had recognized the bucket upon which Jamie had been drumming so vigorously.
"What will you do ?" asked Mrs.M'Kree.
"I don't see what we can do, except keep a sharper lookout in future.

There is not enough evidence to go and boldly accuse him of having walked off with two buckets of lard for which he had not paid.

There may be a hundred buckets like that in the district, every one of which has contained grease of some description, from best dairy butter down to train oil mixed with sawdust," Katherine replied with a laugh, in which the other now joined.
"It is a good thing you can laugh about it; but I am afraid that I shouldn't have felt like laughing if I had been in your case," said Mrs.M'Kree.

Then she cried out in protest: "Must you go so soon, really?
Why, you have been here no time at all, and there are heaps of things I wanted to say to you." "Yes, we must go.