Perhaps at that moment there was hardly another eligible youth in Newlyn
from Tregenza's point of view. He held Joan a girl to be put under stern
marital rule as soon as possible, and Joe promised to make a godly husband
with a strong will, while his convictions and view of life were altogether
satisfactory, being modeled on Michael's own. The arrangement suited Joan.
She believed she loved Joe very dearly, and she looked forward with
satisfaction to marrying him in about a year's time, when he should have
won a ship-master's certificate. But she viewed his departure without
suffering and would not have willingly foregone her remaining year of
freedom. She respected Joe very much and knew he would make a good partner
and give her a position above the everyday wives of Newlyn; moreover, he
was a fine figure of a man. But he lacked mental breadth, and that fact
sometimes tickled her dormant sense of humor. He copied her father so
exactly, and she, who lived with the real thunder, never could show
sufficient gravity or conviction in the presence of the youthful and
narrow-minded Noy's second-hand echoes. Mary Chirgwin was naturally a
thousand times more religious-minded than Joan, and sometimes Joe wished
the sober mind of his first love could be transported to the beautiful body
of his second; but he kept this notion to himself, studied to please his
future father-in-law, which he succeeded in doing handsomely, and contented
himself, in so far as his lady was concerned, by reflecting that the
necessary control over her somewhat light mind would be his in due season.
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