"Your complexion denotes it. I like it, there is a healthy brown about it."
"I have done much hard work in my time," he said.
"Mining?" she asked.
"Yes, I suppose you would call it that."
"Where?"
"On Dartmoor," he said.
She was so astonished she could not speak. She looked at him with fear in her eyes.
"Dartmoor?" she whispered. "I did not know there were mines on Dartmoor."
"Oh, yes, there are—copper mines. I was fool enough to believe there was money in them, but I was mistaken; there is copper there, no doubt, but I did not find it," he said.
She felt as though a snake fascinated her, that she must ask questions about it.