Joan looked at him through her tears; but although she still endeavored to maintain her cold and haughty demeanor, it was plain both that she was longing to find some way of getting out of the position she had taken up, and that she was rejoiced at seeing her lover again. Tregenna, on his side, was just as feverishly happy in this meeting as she, and just as eager to go on with the quarrel, if that were the only way of holding converse with her. She uttered another sob. “I thought you cared for me!” sighed she. “Madam, I thought I did also.” “But I see plainly you do not!” “Nay, madam, then your eyes are keen to see the thing which is not!” “If—if you cared for me, you would have been to visit me—while I was at my aunt’s!” “If you had cared for me, you would not have gone away!” “Then this is to be farewell indeed, sir?” “If such is your pleasure, madam!” “Oh, Harry, you are too, too cruel!” “And you,” whispered Tregenna, his tone suddenly melting to tenderness, as he seized her in his arms, “are too foolish, my dear! Come, dry your eyes and confess that never had a maiden so little cause to doubt her lover as you! Oh, Joan, Joan, and I thought you were so wise, so sober-minded a person! I never guessed you were subject to caprices, like other women! I’m disappointed in you, Joan.” “Will you swear,” said Joan, in a tremulous voice, “you had never any thoughts of love for her, but only for me?” “I will swear it again, as I have sworn before. But you should not doubt me, Joan!” She was looking rather ashamed of herself, and it was easy to see that it would be no difficult matter to convince her of his truth. “’Twas only,” said she meekly, “that all men say she was so resistless a creature—that no man could stand against her wiles. But I’ll be content, so you assure me with your own lips you loved her not, but were kind to her out of pity!” Tregenna did give her assurance with his lips, in very impressive fashion. And they walked back together to Hurst, where Parson Langney, espying them from his gate while they were yet at some distance, greeted them with derisive roars of laughter. “Nay, nay,” said he. “What a flighty, wayward creature is a lover, male or female! If sober married folk did fly off at a tangent like to sweethearts in their courting, there would be never a household on the earth with both master and mistress within its doors at the same time!” “Wherefore are you not busy with your sermon, father?” asked Joan, saucily, to turn the conversation and draw attention from her guilty blushes. “’Tis too early in the week,” retorted the vicar, with a twinkle of his merry eyes. “I was going to the churchyard to look for the key of the vault I opened this morning. I know not how I can have mislaid it.” They accompanied him on his search, but their efforts were in vain; and at last Tregenna suggested that the key might have been stolen.