Page:Joan, the curate.djvu/36

30 "And I'm sure 'tis a very rational diversion for a girl of her tastes," said her sister. "You must know, sir, that she has never seen a play, nor any of the diversions of the town, and that she fills up her time twittering on a dulcimer to her father, and has barely so much as heard of the harpsichord."

"I don't wonder you was affronted by her Gothic behavior," went on Mrs. Waldron; "but sure 'tis very excusable in a girl who has no polish, no refinement, and who takes no more care of her complexion than if she was a dairymaid."

Tregenna felt considerable surprise at the storm of reprobation which he had brought down on the head of poor Joan. For he could not know that the young men of the neighborhood, and even Bertram, the squire's son, all showed a most boorish preference for handsome, straight-limbed Joan, with her free bearing and her ready tongue, over the fine ladies of Hurst Court; and that, at the Hastings assemblies, and at such routs as were given in the neighborhood, Joan had more partners than any one else, though her gown was seldom of the latest mode, and her only fan