Mrs.
Tregenza had to grumble to live, and Joan was the safety-valve, for when
her husband came off the sea he would have none of it.
Life moved uniformly for these people, being varied only by the seasons of
the year and the different harvests from the sea which each brought with
it. Pollock, mackerel, pilchards, herrings--all had their appointed time,
and the years rolled on, marked by events connected with the secular
business of life on one hand and that greater matter of eternity upon the
other. Thus mighty catches of fish held the memory with mighty catches of
men. One year the take of mackerel had been beyond all previous
recollection; on another occasion three entire families had joined the Luke
Gospelers, and so promised to increase the scanty numbers of the chosen.
There were black memories, too, and black years, casting gloomy shadows.
Widows and orphans knew what it was to watch for brown sails that came into
the harbor's sheltering arms no more; and spiritual death had overtaken
more than one Luke Gospeler. Such turned their backs upon the light and
exchanged Truth for the benighted parody of religion displayed by Bible
Christians, by Plymouth Brethren or by the Church of England.
Six months before the day on which she saw his ship through Barron's
glasses, Joan had been formally affianced to Joe Noy, with her father's
permission and approval. The circumstances of the event demand a word, for
Joe had already been engaged once before: to Mary Chirgwin, a young woman
who was first cousin to Joan and a good deal older.
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