"
So Tom departed, and Uncle Chirgwin read Joan's letter aloud to her. It
came from Santa Rosalia, and contained not much news but plenty of love and
some religious sentiments bred from the writer's foreign environment. Joe
Noy would be back in England again before the end of the year.
Joan was reduced to tears by this communication. She refused to be
comforted, and, indeed, the position was beyond Uncle Chirgwin's power to
brighten. The letter had come at a bad moment, and that calm and repose
which almost appeared to be softening Joan's sorrows now spread speedy
wings and departed, leaving her wholly forlorn. Curtains were falling
behind her, but curtains were also rising in front. She had looked forward
vaguely, and now the position was suddenly defined by the arrival of Joe's
letter, with all its future phases clear-cut, cold and terrible.
"My baaby's comin' just then. An' that's what'll fall 'pon his ear fust
thing. Oh, if us could awnly tell en afore he comes so he might knaw 'tis
all chaanged! 'Twould be easier for en, lovin' me that keen. He'd grawed to
be a shadder of a man in my mind; but now I sees en real flaish'n blood;
an' maybe--maybe he'll seek me out an' kill me for what's done."
"I do creem to hear 'e, gal! No, no, Joe Noy's a God fearin' sawl."
"If he'd forgive me fust, I'd so soon he killed me as not. Sam Martin
killed Widow Garth's gal 'cause she were ontrue to en; an' a many said
'twas wrong to hang en to Bodmin.
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