"Nay, 'tis, I think, rather they that do the deeds you command. Jem Bax has the name of being a leader on these occasions, and indeed your own words have confirmed this!"
"'Tis true I have thrown in my lot with them, hating myself the while; but 'tis not true, sir, to say I have had aught but misery and wretchedness in the doing of these deeds. Does not your fine lady friend Miss Joan speak well of me? Come, now, has she spoke never a good word for me, in the discussions I doubt not you have had on these matters?"
"Yes, she says you can be kind and womanly, when you please; that you are good to the poor and the sick; and that she has a kind of liking for you, besides that she feels for you as the daughter of one whom she remembers tender to her in her childhood."
Ann's mobile face had grown, as she listened to this speech, as happy and soft as a child's.
"Ay, sir," said she, "and 'tis the real Ann of whom she speaks, the natural woman that I would fain always be!"
"Give up your dealings with these folk, then," said Tregenna, eagerly, as he sat on the balustrade, and looked at her with earnest
