face up to is she being wed to that man! For I know she don’t like him, Sam. I know she can’t abide him! Be that Christian? Be that the work of the Holy Spirit? Did Jesus ordain that a man and a woman should lie together and be of one flesh when the woman’s flesh d’turn sick at the man’s touch? Where be that in the Bible? Where do it say that in the Bible? Tell me, where do God’s love and mercy and forgiveness come in?’
Sam’ looked very distressed. `Brother, these, are only thoughts you d’have about the young woman’s preferences. Ye cann’t know
`I know ‘nough! She said little, but she showed much. She couldn’t lie to me over a thing like that! And her face could not lie ! That is what I cann’t bear. Understand me, do you?’
Sam walked up and stood beside his brother. They were both near tears and did not speak for a few moments.
Sam said: ‘Mebbe I don’t understand it all, Drake. Mebbe some day I shall, for some day I shall hope with God’s guidance to choose a wife. But tis not hard to see how you d’feel. I can only pray for you as I’ve done ever since this first ever happened.’
`Pray for she,’ said Drake. ‘Pray for Morwenna.’
Pally’s Shop, as it was called, was in a small deep valley on the main track from Nampara and Trenwith to St Ann’s. You went; down a steep winding hill, to it, and had to climb a steep winding hill on the other side to reach the little sea town. There was about a mile and a half of flat stony fields and barren moorland separating it directly from the sea; with one of the Warleggan mines, Wheal Spinster, smoking distantly among the gorse and the heather. Behind the shop the land rose less steeply, and here were the fields representing the six acres for sale. The property was separated from anything. else actually belonging to the Warleggans by Trevaunance Cove and the house and land of that elderly bachelor, Sir John Trevaunance. On the hill going up to St Ann’s were a half-dozen cottages in ruinous condition, and the only cluster of trees in sight sheltered the blunt spire of St Ann’s church just visible over the brow of the hill.
Demelza had insisted on riding with Ross and Drake to see the property, and she darted about and examined everything with far greater zest than either of the men. To Ross the purchase of this would be the discharge of a debt, a satisfactory good turn the sort of, use to which money could healthily be put. To Drake it was a dream; that he could not relate to reality: ‘ if he came to possess this he became a man of property, a young man with something to work for - a skilled tradesman with a future. It would be blank ingratitude to ask to what end. But Demelza-went over it as if it were being bought for her private and personal use.
A low, stone wall surrounded a yard inches deep in mud, with an accumulation of old metal, bits of rusty ploughs and broken cart shafts littered around it. Behind that was the `shop’ open to the yard, with its central stone post for tethering horses, its forge, its pump emptying into a water barrel, its anvil and its wide chimney. Horse dung was everywhere. Backing on the shop was the cottage, with a narrow earth-floored kitchen and two steps up to a tiny woodfloored parlour with a ladder leading to two bedrooms in the roof above.
Demelza had everything to say on the way home, how, this should be cleared out and that repaired and the other improved; what could be done with the fields and the barn and the yard, and how Drake could employ cheap labour to have the place cleared and done up. For the most part the men were silent, and when they reached home Drake handed her down, squeezed her hand and kissed her cheek, smiled at Ross and then went striding away to his cottage.
Ross watched him go. `He says little. The place has possibilities,, but he needs bottom to shake himself out of that mood.’
‘I think “the place” as you call it, will help, Ross. Once he owns it he cannot
Sam’ looked very distressed. `Brother, these, are only thoughts you d’have about the young woman’s preferences. Ye cann’t know
`I know ‘nough! She said little, but she showed much. She couldn’t lie to me over a thing like that! And her face could not lie ! That is what I cann’t bear. Understand me, do you?’
Sam walked up and stood beside his brother. They were both near tears and did not speak for a few moments.
Sam said: ‘Mebbe I don’t understand it all, Drake. Mebbe some day I shall, for some day I shall hope with God’s guidance to choose a wife. But tis not hard to see how you d’feel. I can only pray for you as I’ve done ever since this first ever happened.’
`Pray for she,’ said Drake. ‘Pray for Morwenna.’
Pally’s Shop, as it was called, was in a small deep valley on the main track from Nampara and Trenwith to St Ann’s. You went; down a steep winding hill, to it, and had to climb a steep winding hill on the other side to reach the little sea town. There was about a mile and a half of flat stony fields and barren moorland separating it directly from the sea; with one of the Warleggan mines, Wheal Spinster, smoking distantly among the gorse and the heather. Behind the shop the land rose less steeply, and here were the fields representing the six acres for sale. The property was separated from anything. else actually belonging to the Warleggans by Trevaunance Cove and the house and land of that elderly bachelor, Sir John Trevaunance. On the hill going up to St Ann’s were a half-dozen cottages in ruinous condition, and the only cluster of trees in sight sheltered the blunt spire of St Ann’s church just visible over the brow of the hill.
Demelza had insisted on riding with Ross and Drake to see the property, and she darted about and examined everything with far greater zest than either of the men. To Ross the purchase of this would be the discharge of a debt, a satisfactory good turn the sort of, use to which money could healthily be put. To Drake it was a dream; that he could not relate to reality: ‘ if he came to possess this he became a man of property, a young man with something to work for - a skilled tradesman with a future. It would be blank ingratitude to ask to what end. But Demelza-went over it as if it were being bought for her private and personal use.
A low, stone wall surrounded a yard inches deep in mud, with an accumulation of old metal, bits of rusty ploughs and broken cart shafts littered around it. Behind that was the `shop’ open to the yard, with its central stone post for tethering horses, its forge, its pump emptying into a water barrel, its anvil and its wide chimney. Horse dung was everywhere. Backing on the shop was the cottage, with a narrow earth-floored kitchen and two steps up to a tiny woodfloored parlour with a ladder leading to two bedrooms in the roof above.
Demelza had everything to say on the way home, how, this should be cleared out and that repaired and the other improved; what could be done with the fields and the barn and the yard, and how Drake could employ cheap labour to have the place cleared and done up. For the most part the men were silent, and when they reached home Drake handed her down, squeezed her hand and kissed her cheek, smiled at Ross and then went striding away to his cottage.
Ross watched him go. `He says little. The place has possibilities,, but he needs bottom to shake himself out of that mood.’
‘I think “the place” as you call it, will help, Ross. Once he owns it he cannot
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