"
The woman was self-possessed again now, although Joe's voice and
well-remembered gestures moved her powerfully and made it difficult to keep
her voice within absolute control.
"All you can ax that I knaw, I'll tell 'e, though Joan shut her thots purty
close most times. Us awnly got side views of her mind, and them not often."
"The man," he said. "Tell me all--every-thin' you can call home--all what
her said of him."
"Fust she thot a 'mazin' deal 'bout en," explained the farmer; "then time
made her mind get stale of en, an' she begin to see us was right. He sent
money--a thousand pound, an' I--poor fool--thot Joan weern't mistook at
fust. But 'twas awnly conscience money; an' now Thomasin's the better for't
by will."
But this sensational statement was not appreciated, Joe's mind being
elsewhere.
"You never heard the name of en?"
"Awnly the christening name, as was 'Jan.' You may have heard tell she got
a letter the night she passed. Us found the coverin' under the table next
day, an' Mary comed across the letter itself in her pocket at the last."
"'Tis that I be comed for. If you could tell so much as a word or two out
of it, Mary? They said you burned it an' the crowner was mighty angry, but
I thot as p'raps you'd looked at it all the same, awnly weern't pleased to
say so."
"No," she answered. "Tis true I found a letter, an' I might a read some of
it if I would, but I judged better not.
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