'I have come to-day from West Wyke.'
'Indeed! I hope you left all well there.'
'Only fairly so. You have not heard what happened to poor Joyce.'
'I do not know who poor Joyce is.'
'Joyce is that wild girl who helped you to West Wyke on the evening of the accident.'
'I remember an uncouth and unmannerly paysanne. Is her name Joyce? I did not know it. If I had heard it, the name escaped my memory. Joyce! what is the derivation of the name Joyce?[1] Joieuse, I presume—a singularly inappropriate name in this case.'
[1] In the South Tawton Register stands this entry under Baptisms: 'Jocosa, anglicè Joyce, daughter of ——,' &c. It was formerly a common name in Devon.
'Very much so, poor child. That brutal father of hers broke her arms, and otherwise seriously injured her.'
'Indeed! These savages have their ways.'
Herring was shocked at her want of feeling.