She was an orphan and
dwelt at Drift with Thomas Chirgwin, her uncle. The sailor had thereby
brightened an unutterably lonely life and brought earthly joy to one who
had never known it. Then Gray Michael got hold of the lad, who was
naturally of a solid and religious temperament, and up to that time of the
order of the Rechabites. As a result, Joe Noy joined the Luke Gospelers and
called upon his sweetheart to do likewise. But she recollected her aunt,
Joan's mother, and being made of stern stuff, stuck to the Church of
England as she knew it, counting salvation a greater thing than even a home
of her own. The struggle was sharp between them; neither would give way;
their engagement was therefore broken, and the girl's solitary golden
glimpse of happiness in this world shattered. She found it hard to forgive
the Tregenzas, and when, six months afterward, the sleepy farm life at
Drift was startled by news of Joan's love affair, Mary, in the first flush
of her reawakened agony, spoke bitterly enough; and even that most
mild-mannered of men, her uncle, said that Michael Tregenza had done an
ugly act.
But the fisherman was at no time concerned with Mary or with Joan. The
opportunity to get a soul into the fold had offered and been accepted. Any
matter of earthly love-making counted little beside this. When Joe broke
with Mary, his mentor declared the action inevitable, as the girl would not
alter her opinions, and when, presently, young Noy fell in love with Joan,
her father saw no objection, for the sailor was honest, already a stanch
Luke Gospeler and a clean liver.
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