He found Joanna sitting at a table by herself, finishing a cup of tea.  The big table was edged on both sides with farmers, graziers and butchers, while the small tables were also occupied, so there was not much need for his apologies as he sat down opposite her.  Her face kindled at once—­

“I’m sorry I’m so near finished.”

She was a grudgeless soul, and Martin almost liked her.

“Have you done much business to-day?”

“Not much.  I’m going home as soon as I’ve had my dinner.  Are you stopping long?”

“Till I’ve done a bit of shopping”—­he found himself slipping into the homeliness of her tongue—­“I want a good spade and some harness.”

“I’ll tell you a good shop for harness ...”  Joanna loved enlightening ignorance and guiding inexperience, and while Martin’s chop and potatoes were being brought she held forth on different makes of harness and called spades spades untiringly.  He listened without rancour, for he was beginning to like her very much.  His liking was largely physical—­he wouldn’t have believed a month ago that he should ever find Joanna Godden attractive, but to-day the melting of his prejudice seemed to come chiefly from her warm beauty, from the rich colouring of her face and the flying sunniness of her hair, from her wide mouth with its wide smile, from the broad, strong set of her shoulders, and the sturdy tenderness of her breast.

She saw that he had changed.  His manner was different, more cordial and simple—­the difference between his coldness and his warmth was greater than in many, for like most romantics he had found himself compelled at an early age to put on armour, and the armour was stiff and disguising in proportion to the lightness and grace of the body within.  Not that he and Joanna talked of light and graceful things ... they talked, after spades and harness, of horses and sheep, and of her ideas on breaking up grass, which was to be a practical scheme at Ansdore that spring in spite of the neighbours, of the progress of the new light railway from Lydd to Appledore, of the advantages and disadvantages of growing lucerne.  But the barrier was down between them, and he knew that they were free, if they chose, to go on from horses and sheep and railways and crops to more daring, intimate things, and because of that same freedom they stuck to the homely topics, like people who are free to leave the fireside but wait till the sun is warmer on the grass.

He had begun his apple-tart before she rose.

“Well, I must be getting back now.  Good-bye, Mr. Trevor.  If you should ever happen to pass Ansdore, drop in and I’ll give you a cup of tea.”

He was well aware that the whole room had heard this valediction.  He saw some of the men smiling at each other, but he was not annoyed.  He rose and went with her to the door, where she hugged herself into her big driving coat.  Something about her made him feel big enough to ignore the small gossip of the Marsh.