"I'm of Lucy's opinion," said Joel. "I'd have great pleasure in drinking your health with it now, great-granny."
She looked up with a certain suspicious light in her eyes.
"You've got a sovereign," she said coldly; "how many more do you want?"
He laughed uneasily.
"As many as your kind heart could spare a poverty-stricken fellow like me."
"In good time, my lad, all in good time."
Barbara also lifted her eyes and gave the young man a long and serious look; then she dropped them without comment.
Joel smiled sourly. If Mistress Lynn's money was to do him any good, he must have it now. Later would be too late.
Timothy Hadwin had cast out the evil spirit with which he had been possessed. He had wakened in the morning free from its baleful influence, but he had neglected to fill its vacant place with a better one. He had let himself drift. All through the day the old man had striven to rouse him, but he could make nothing of Joel. His mood varied from flippant to sullen, but a serious interest in, or a manly attitude towards life, he seemed to be incapable of attaining.
Now he sat gazing on the bridewain, thinking of what it contained, and wondering if Mistress Lynn would lend him some money. But even as the thought passed through his mind, he dismissed it. She would want to know all about his ways and means, his follies and sins; she would search the most secret places of his heart if he once gave her the opportunity, and there was much he would be ashamed for any eye to see.