Presently indeed she did, scarcely daring
to raise her eyes, but flushing with great waves of joy when she saw him,
and crying "Mister Jan!" in a triumphant ripple of music from a full heart.
Then the artist rose very boldly and put his arms round her and looked into
her face, while she nestled close to him and shut her eyes with a sigh of
sheer content and thankfulness. She had learned her lesson thoroughly
enough; she felt she could not live without him now, and when he kissed her
she did not start from the caress, but opened her eyes and looked into his
face with great yearning love.
"Oh, thank the good God you'm comed back agin to me! To think it be awnly
two lil days! An' the time have seemed a hunderd years. I thot 'e was lost
or dead or killed, an' I seed 'e, when I slept, a tossin' over down in the
zawns [Footnote: _Zawns_--Sea caves.] where the sea roars an' makes the
world shake. Oh, Mister Jan, an' I woke screamin', an' mother comed up, an'
I near spoke your name, but not quite."
"You need not have feared for me, Joan, though I have been very miserable
too, my little sweetheart; I have indeed. I was overworked and worried and
wretched, so I stopped in Newlyn, but being away from you had only taught
me I cannot exist away from you. The time was long and dreary, and it would
have been still worse had I known that you were unhappy."
"'Tweer wisht days for me, Mister Jan.
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