Sylvia's Lovers

The morning brought more peace if it did not entirely dissipate

fear. Daniel seemed to have got over his irritability, and was

unusually kind and tender to wife and daughter, especially striving

by silent little deeds to make up for the sharp words he had said

the night before to the latter.

As if by common consent, all allusion to the Saturday night's

proceedings was avoided. They spoke of the day's work before them;

of the crops to be sown; of the cattle; of the markets; but each one

was conscious of a wish to know more distinctly what were the

chances of the danger that, to judge from Philip's words, hung over

them, falling upon them and cutting them off from all these places

for the coming days.

Bell longed to send Kester down into Monkshaven as a sort of spy to

see how the land lay; but she dared not manifest her anxiety to her

husband, and could not see Kester alone. She wished that she had

told him to go to the town, when she had had him to herself in the

house-place the night before; now it seemed as though Daniel were

resolved not to part from him, and as though both had forgotten that

any peril had been anticipated. Sylvia and her mother, in like

manner, clung together, not speaking of their fears, yet each

knowing that it was ever present in the other's mind.

So things went on till twelve o'clock--dinner-time. If at any time

that morning they had had the courage to speak together on the

thought which was engrossing all their minds, it is possible that

some means might have been found to avert the calamity that was

coming towards them with swift feet. But among the uneducated--the

partially educated--nay, even the weakly educated--the feeling

exists which prompted the futile experiment of the well-known

ostrich. They imagine that, by closing their own eyes to apprehended

evil, they avert it. The expression of fear is supposed to

accelerate the coming of its cause. Yet, on the other hand, they

shrink from acknowledging the long continuance of any blessing, in

the idea that when unusual happiness is spoken about, it disappears.

So, although perpetual complaints of past or present grievances and

sorrows are most common among this class, they shrink from embodying

apprehensions for the future in words, as if it then took shape and

drew near.

They all four sate down to dinner, but not one of them was inclined

to eat. The food was scarcely touched on their plates, yet they were

trying to make talk among themselves as usual; they seemed as though

they dared not let themselves be silent, when Sylvia, sitting

opposite to the window, saw Philip at the top of the brow, running

rapidly towards the farm. She had been so full of the anticipation

of some kind of misfortune all the morning that she felt now as if

this was the very precursive circumstance she had been expecting;

she stood up, turning quite white, and, pointing with her finger,

said,-'There he is!' Every one at table stood up too. An instant afterwards, Philip,

breathless, was in the room.