Sylvia's Lovers

'Why, lad! I'm a'most ashamed to tell thee, I were sore put out

mysel'; but Sylvia were so broken-hearted like I couldn't cast it up

to her as I should ha' liked: th' silly lass had gone and gi'en him

a bit o' ribbon, as many a one knowed, for it had been a vast

noticed and admired that evenin' at th' Corneys'--new year's eve I

think it were--and t' poor vain peacock had tied it on his hat, so

that when t' tide----hist! there's Sylvie coming in at t' back-door;

never let on,' and in a forced made-up voice she inquired aloud, for

hitherto she had been speaking almost in a whisper,-'And didst ta see King George an' Queen Charlotte?' Philip could not answer--did not hear. His soul had gone out to meet

Sylvia, who entered with quiet slowness quite unlike her former

self. Her face was wan and white; her gray eyes seemed larger, and

full of dumb tearless sorrow; she came up to Philip, as if his being

there touched her with no surprise, and gave him a gentle greeting

as if he were a familiar indifferent person whom she had seen but

yesterday. Philip, who had recollected the quarrel they had had, and

about Kinraid too, the very last time they had met, had expected

some trace of this remembrance to linger in her looks and speech to

him. But there was no such sign; her great sorrow had wiped away all

anger, almost all memory. Her mother looked at her anxiously, and

then said in the same manner of forced cheerfulness which she had

used before,-'Here's Philip, lass, a' full o' Lunnon; call thy father in, an

we'll hear a' about t' new-fangled pleughs. It'll be rare an' nice

a' sitting together again.' Sylvia, silent and docile, went out to the shippen to obey her

mother's wish. Bell Robson leant forward towards Philip,

misinterpreting the expression on his face, which was guilt as much

as sympathy, and checked the possible repentance which might have

urged him on at that moment to tell all he knew, by saying, 'Lad!

it's a' for t' best. He were noane good enough for her; and I

misdoubt me he were only playin' wi' her as he'd done by others. Let

her a-be, let her a-be; she'll come round to be thankful.' Robson bustled in with loud welcome; all the louder and more

talkative because he, like his wife, assumed a cheerful manner

before Sylvia. Yet he, unlike his wife, had many a secret regret

over Kinraid's fate. At first, while merely the fact of his

disappearance was known, Daniel Robson had hit on the truth, and had

stuck to his opinion that the cursed press-gang were at the bottom

of it. He had backed his words by many an oath, and all the more

because he had not a single reason to give that applied to the

present occasion. No one on the lonely coast had remarked any sign

of the presence of the men-of-war, or the tenders that accompanied

them, for the purpose of impressment on the king's ships. At

Shields, and at the mouth of the Tyne, where they lay in greedy

wait, the owners of the Urania had caused strict search to be made

for their skilled and protected specksioneer, but with no success.

All this positive evidence in contradiction to Daniel Robson's

opinion only made him cling to it the more; until the day when the

hat was found on the shore with Kinraid's name written out large and

fair in the inside, and the tell-tale bit of ribbon knotted in the

band. Then Daniel, by a sudden revulsion, gave up every hope; it

never entered his mind that it could have fallen off by any

accident. No! now Kinraid was dead and drowned, and it was a bad

job, and the sooner it could be forgotten the better for all

parties; and it was well no one knew how far it had gone with

Sylvia, especially now since Bessy Corney was crying her eyes out as

if he had been engaged to her. So Daniel said nothing to his wife

about the mischief that had gone on in her absence, and never spoke

to Sylvia about the affair; only he was more than usually tender to

her in his rough way, and thought, morning, noon, and night, on what

he could do to give her pleasure, and drive away all recollection of

her ill-starred love.