But I'd been thinking for some time of doing a rash thing.

I was newly married then, d'ye ken, and I was thinkin' it was time I made something of myself for the sake of her who'd risked her life wi' me.

So that night I went home to her wi' a stern face.
"Nance!" I said.

"I'm going to chuck the mine and go in for the stage.
My mind's made up." Now, Nance liked my singin' well enough, and she thought, as I did, that I could do better than some we'd heard on the stage.

But I think what she thought chiefly was that if my mind was made `up to try it she'd not stand in my way.