Page:Joan, the curate.djvu/29

Rh bitterness he had shown while discussing the subject of smugglers with Miss Joan.

"And as the squire is a justice of the peace, whose duty it is to punish evil-doers, I may at last hope, under his roof, to meet with some sympathy with the objects of justice, such as one expects from all right-thinking people."

"Why, sir, certainly," said Parson Langney again, somewhat more dryly than before. And then, turning to his daughter, he added briskly, "Come, Joan, we must be returning. The lad below will do very well now, sir, with quiet, and the physic I have left for him. And I'll pay him another visit in a day or two."

As he addressed these last words to the lieutenant, the parson was already preparing to lower himself into the boat which had brought him. He seemed in haste to be gone.

Lieutenant Tregenna then helped the young lady down into the boat, giving her as he did so a somewhat piqued and resentful glance, which, however, she demurely refused to meet with a return look from her own black eyes until she was safely in the little boat beside her father.

Then, as the small craft was tossing amidst