Sylvia's Lovers

'I'm candlestick,' said Kinraid, with less of triumph in his voice

than he would have had with any other girl in the room.

'Yo' mun kiss t' candlestick,' cried the Corneys, 'or yo'll niver

get yo'r ribbon back.' 'And she sets a deal o' store by that ribbon,' said Molly Brunton,

maliciously.

'I'll none kiss t' candlestick, nor him either,' said Sylvia, in a

low voice of determination, turning away, full of confusion.

'Yo'll not get yo'r ribbon if yo' dunnot,' cried one and all.

'I don't care for t' ribbon,' said she, flashing up with a look at

her tormentors, now her back was turned to Kinraid. 'An' I wunnot

play any more at such like games,' she added, with fresh indignation

rising in her heart as she took her old place in the corner of the

room a little away from the rest.

Philip's spirits rose, and he yearned to go to her and tell her how

he approved of her conduct. Alas, Philip! Sylvia, though as modest a

girl as ever lived, was no prude, and had been brought up in simple,

straightforward country ways; and with any other young man,

excepting, perhaps, Philip's self, she would have thought no more of

making a rapid pretence of kissing the hand or cheek of the

temporary 'candlestick', than our ancestresses did in a much higher

rank on similar occasions. Kinraid, though mortified by his public

rejection, was more conscious of this than the inexperienced Philip;

he resolved not to be baulked, and watched his opportunity. For the

time he went on playing as if Sylvia's conduct had not affected him

in the least, and as if he was hardly aware of her defection from

the game. As she saw others submitting, quite as a matter of course,

to similar penances, she began to be angry with herself for having

thought twice about it, and almost to dislike herself for the

strange consciousness which had made it at the time seem impossible

to do what she was told. Her eyes kept filling with tears as her

isolated position in the gay party, the thought of what a fool she

had made of herself, kept recurring to her mind; but no one saw her,

she thought, thus crying; and, ashamed to be discovered when the

party should pause in their game, she stole round behind them into

the great chamber in which she had helped to lay out the supper,

with the intention of bathing her eyes, and taking a drink of water.

One instant Charley Kinraid was missing from the circle of which he

was the life and soul; and then back he came with an air of

satisfaction on his face, intelligible enough to those who had seen

his game; but unnoticed by Philip, who, amidst the perpetual noise

and movements around him, had not perceived Sylvia's leaving the

room, until she came back at the end of about a quarter of an hour,

looking lovelier than ever, her complexion brilliant, her eyes

drooping, her hair neatly and freshly arranged, tied with a brown

ribbon instead of that she was supposed to have forfeited. She

looked as if she did not wish her return to be noticed, stealing

softly behind the romping lads and lasses with noiseless motions,

and altogether such a contrast to them in her cool freshness and

modest neatness, that both Kinraid and Philip found it difficult to

keep their eyes off her. But the former had a secret triumph in his

heart which enabled him to go on with his merry-making as if it

absorbed him; while Philip dropped out of the crowd and came up to

where she was standing silently by Mrs. Corney, who, arms akimbo, was

laughing at the frolic and fun around her. Sylvia started a little

when Philip spoke, and kept her soft eyes averted from him after the

first glance; she answered him shortly, but with unaccustomed

gentleness. He had only asked her when she would like him to take

her home; and she, a little surprised at the idea of going home when

to her the evening seemed only beginning, had answered-'Go home? I don't know! It's New Year's eve!' 'Ay! but yo'r mother 'll lie awake till yo' come home, Sylvie!' But Mrs. Corney, having heard his question, broke in with all sorts

of upbraidings. 'Go home! Not see t' New Year in! Why, what should

take 'em home these six hours? Wasn't there a moon as clear as day?

and did such a time as this come often? And were they to break up

the party before the New Year came in? And was there not supper,

with a spiced round of beef that had been in pickle pretty nigh sin'

Martinmas, and hams, and mince-pies, and what not? And if they

thought any evil of her master's going to bed, or that by that early

retirement he meant to imply that he did not bid his friends

welcome, why he would not stay up beyond eight o'clock for King

George upon his throne, as he'd tell them soon enough, if they'd

only step upstairs and ask him. Well; she knowed what it was to want

a daughter when she was ailing, so she'd say nought more, but hasten

supper.