CLARA. [_Suddenly sitting down_.] And has yours been touched to-day, Joan, by love? JOAN. That it have, mistress. Love have struck at it heavily. CLARA. Through which of the gentlemen did it strike, Joan? JOAN. Through both. Leastways, ’tis Mister Jenner that my feelings do go out most quickly to, mistress. But ’tis Mister Hooper who do court the hardest and who has the greatest riches like. CLARA. Well, and what do you want me to do or to say now, Joan? JOAN. See here, mistress, I want you to give me a chance. They’ll never stoop to wed me if they knows as I’m but a poor serving maid. CLARA. Your dressing up as a fine lady won’t make you other than what you are, Joan. JOAN. Once let me get the fish in my net, mistress. CLARA. Are you proposing to catch the two, Joan? JOAN. I shall take the one as do offer first, mistress. CLARA. That’ll be Mister Hooper, I should think. JOAN. I should go riding in my own chaise, mistress, if ’twas him. CLARA. But, Joan, either of these men would have to know the truth before there could be any marriage. JOAN. I knows that full well, mistress. But let one of them just offer hisself. By that time my heart and his would be so closely twined together like, ’twould take more nor such a little thing as my station being low to part us. [CLARA _sits very still for a few moments_, _looking straight before her_, _lost in thought_. JOAN _sinks on to a chair by the table as though suddenly tired out_, _and she begins to cry gently_. CLARA. Listen, Joan. I’m one for the straight paths. I like to walk in open fields and over the bare heath. Only times come when one is driven to take to the ways which are set with bushes and with briars. JOAN. [_Lifting her head and drying her eyes_.] O mistress, I feel to be asking summat as is too heavy for you to give. CLARA. But for a certain thing, I could never have lent myself to this acting game of yours, Joan. JOAN. No, mistress? CLARA. Only that, to-day, my heart too has gone from my own keeping. JOAN. O mistress, you don’t mean to say as his lordship have followed us down already. CLARA. [_Scornfully_.] His lordship! As if I should be stirred by him! JOAN. [_Humbly_.] Who might it be, mistress, if I may ask? CLARA. ’Tis one who would never look upon me with thoughts of love if I went to him as I am now, Joan. JOAN. I can’t rightly understand you, mam. CLARA. My case is just the same as yours, Joan. You say that your fine gentlemen would not look upon a serving maid. JOAN. I’m certain of it, mistress. CLARA. And the man I—I love will never let his heart go out to mine with the heaviness of all these riches lying between us. JOAN. I count that gold do pave the way for most of us, mistress. CLARA. So for this once, I will leave the clear high road, Joan. And you and I will take a path that is set with thorns. Pray God they do not wound us past healing at the end of our travel.