ting, so she
felt that she would now prefer the other--she would like to marry some
man of the upper classes, a lawyer or a parson or a squire. The two
first were represented in her mind by Mr. Huxtable and Mr. Pratt, and
she did not linger over them, but the image she had put up for the third
was Martin Trevor--dark, tall, well-born, comely and strong of frame,
and yet with that hidden delicacy, that weakness which Joanna must have
in a man if she was to love him....

She had been a fool about Martin Trevor--she had managed to put him
against her at the start. Of course it was silly of him to mind what she
said to Mr. Pratt, but that didn't alter the fact that she had been
stupid herself, that she had failed to make a good impression just when
she most wanted to do so. Martin Trevor was the sort of man she felt she
could "take to," for in addition to his looks he had the quality she
prized in males--the quality of inexperience; he was not likely to
meddle with her ways, since he was only a beginner and would probably be
glad of her superior knowledge and judgment. He would give her what she
wanted--his good name and his good looks and her neighbours' envious
confusion--and she would give him what he wanted, her prosperity and her
experience. North Farthing House was poorer than Ansdore in spite of
late dinners and drawing-rooms--the Trevors could look down on her from
the point of view of birth and breeding but not from any advantage more
concrete.

As for herself, for her own warm, vigorous, vital person--with that
curious simplicity which was part of her unawakened state, it never
occurred to her to throw herself into the balance when Ansdore was
already making North Farthing kick the beam. She thought of taking a
husband as she thought of taking a farm hand--as a matter of bargaining,
of offering substantial benefits in exchange for substantial services.
If in a secondary way she was moved by romantic considerations, that was
also true of her engagement of her male servants. Just as she saw her
future husband in his possibilities as a farm-hand, in his relations to
Ansdore, so she could not help seeing every farm-hand in his
possibilities as a husband, in his relations to herself.

Sec.7

Martin Trevor would have been surprised had he known himself the object
of so much attention. His attitude towards Joanna was one of
indifference based on dislike--her behaviour towards Mr. Pratt had
disgusted him at the