am and pots of "relish"
which stretched down the table in orderly lines, so the meal proceeded
according to the decent conventions of silence. Nobody spoke, except to
offer some eatable to somebody else. Joanna saw that no cup or plate was
empty. She ought really to have delegated this duty to another, being
presumably too closely wrapped in grief to think of anybody's appetite
but her own, but Joanna never delegated anything, and her "A little more
tea, Mrs. Vine?"--"Another of these cakes, Mr. Huxtable?"--"Just a
little dash of relish, Mr. Pratt?" were constantly breaking the
stillness, and calling attention to her as she sat behind the teapot,
with her plumed hat still a little on one side.

She was emphatically what men call a "fine woman," with her firm, white
neck, her broad shoulders, her deep bosom and strong waist; she was
tall, too, with large, useful hands and feet. Her face was brown and
slightly freckled, with a warm colour on the cheeks; the features were
strong, but any impression of heaviness was at once dispelled by a pair
of eager, living blue eyes. Big jet earrings dangled from her ears,
being matched by the double chain of beads that hung over her
crape-frilled bodice. Indeed, with her plumes, her earrings, her
necklace, her frills, though all were of the decent and respectable
black, she faintly shocked the opinion of Walland Marsh, otherwise
disposed in pity to be lenient to Joanna Godden and her ways.

Owing to the absence of conversation, tea was not as long drawn-out as
might have been expected from the appetites. Besides, everyone was in a
hurry to be finished and hear the reading of old Thomas Godden's will.
Already several interesting rumours were afloat, notably one that he
had left Ansdore to Joanna only on condition that she married Arthur
Alce within the year. "She's a mare that's never been praeaperly broken
in, and she wants a strong hand to do it." Thus unchoicely Furnese of
Misleham had expressed the wish that fathered such a thought.

So at the first possible moment after the last munch and loud swallow
with which old Grandfather Vine, who was unfortunately the slowest as
well as the largest eater, announced repletion, all the chairs were
pushed back on the drugget and a row of properly impassive faces
confronted Mr. Huxtable the lawyer as he took his stand by the window.
Only Joanna remained sitting at the table, her warm blue eyes seeming to
reflect the evening's light, her arm r