She answered him sadly, looking past him into the sunny distance-- 'No, nor like to be.' 'I must disagree with you there.

If you are not married yet, I am sure you will be very soon.

I never saw a more likely lassie than yourself.' Manlike, he was quite unconscious of the consummate impertinence of the form this compliment had taken; but afterwards he realised it when his idle words recurred to his mind.
She turned her eyes full upon him, and said with energy: 'Ye know nowt at all about it;' and then added more meditatively, 'neither do parson.' She had been so absorbed in her thoughts for a few minutes that she had ceased to stroke the dog, and, resenting this, it raised its silky head from her lap and laid it upon her breast.

Thus reminded, she smiled down into the eyes of the dog and caressed it, pressing its head closer against her bosom.

The man stood a few paces away, watching these two beautiful creatures as they sat in the hazy autumn sunlight, with their background of weeds and moss-grown paling.