ant, it was evident

"I conna blame yo' fur doin' what were reet," she answered.

"Right,--you thought it right?"

"Why should na I? Yo' couldna ha' done no other."

"Thank you for saying that," he returned. "I have thought once or twice
that you might have blamed me."

"I did na know," was her answer. "I did na know as I had done owt to
mak' yo' think so ill of me."

He did not find further comment easy. He felt, as he had felt before,
that Joan had placed him at a disadvantage. He so often made irritating
mistakes in his efforts to read her, and in the end he seldom found that
he had made any advance. Anice Barholm, with her problems and her moods,
was far less difficult to comprehend than Joan Lowrie.

Liz was at the cottage door when they parted, and Liz's eyes had
curiosity and wonder in them when she met her friend.

"Joan," she said, peering over the door-sill at Derrick's retreating
figure, "is na that one o' th' mesters? Is na it the Lunnon engineer,
Joan?"

"Yes," Joan answered briefly.

The pretty, silly creature's eyes grew larger, with a shade of awe.

"Is na it th' one as yore feyther's so bitter agen?"

"Yes."

"An' is na he a gentleman? He dunnot look loike a workin' mon. His cloas
dunnot fit him loike common foakes. He mun be a gentleman."

"I've heerd foak ca' him one; an' if his cloas fit him reet, he mun be
one, I suppose."

Liz looked after him again.

"Aye," she sighed, "he's a gentleman sure enow. I've seed gentlemen enow
to know th' look on 'em. Did----" hesitating fearfully, but letting her
curiosity get the better of her discretion nevertheless,--"did he court
thee, Joan?"

The next moment she was frightened into wishing she had not asked the
question. Joan turned round and faced her suddenly, pale and wrathful.

"Nay, he did na," she said. "I am na a lady, an' he is what tha ca's
him--a gentleman."

CHAPTER XV - A Discovery

The first time that Joan appeared at the night school, the men and
girls looked up from their tasks to stare at her, and whisper among
themselves; but she was, to all appearances, oblivious of their
scrutiny, and the flurry of curiosity and excitement soon died out.
After the first visit her place was never vacant. On the nights
appointed for the classes to meet, she came, did the work allotted to
her, and went her way again, pretty much as she did at the mines. When
in due time Anice began to work out her plan of co-operation with her,
she