Part 27 (1/2)

”Yet with the shuttle and the spindle we may redeem our race,” said Sybil with animation, ”if we could only form the minds that move those peaceful weapons. Oh! my father, I will believe that moral power is irresistible, or where are we to look for hope?”

Gerard shook his head with his habitual sweet good-tempered smile. ”Ah!”

said he, ”what can we do; they have got the land, and the land governs the people. The Norman knew that, Sybil, as you just read. If indeed we had our rights, one might do something; but I don't know; I dare say if I had our land again, I should be as bad as the rest.”

”Oh! no, my father,” exclaimed Sybil with energy, ”never, never! Your thoughts would be as princely as your lot. What a leader of the people you would make!”

Harold sprang up suddenly and growled.

”Hus.h.!.+” said Gerard; ”some one knocks:” and he rose and left the room.

Sybil heard voices and broken sentences: ”You'll excuse me”--”I take it kindly”--”So we are neighbours.” And then her father returned, ushering in a person and saying, ”Here is my friend Mr Franklin that I was speaking of, Sybil, who is going to be our neighbour; down Harold, down!” and he presented to his daughter the companion of Mr St Lys in that visit to the Hand-loom weaver when she had herself met the vicar of Mowbray.

Sybil rose, and letting her book drop gently on the table, received Egremont with composure and native grace. It is civilization that makes us awkward, for it gives us an uncertain position. Perplexed, we take refuge in pretence; and embarra.s.sed, we seek a resource in affectation.

The Bedouin and the Red Indian never lose their presence of mind; and the wife of a peasant, when you enter her cottage, often greets you with a propriety of mien which favourably contrasts with your reception by some grand dame in some grand a.s.sembly, meeting her guests alternately with a caricature of courtesy or an exaggeradon of supercilious self-control.

”I dare say,” said Egremont bowing to Sybil, ”you have seen our poor friend the weaver since we met there.”

”The day I quitted Mowbray,” said Sybil. ”They are not without friends.”

”Ah! you have met my daughter before.”

”On a mission of grace,” said Egremont.

”And I suppose you found the town not very pleasant, Mr Franklin,”

continued Gerard.

”No; I could not stand it, the nights were so close. Besides I have a great acc.u.mulation of notes, and I fancied I could reduce them into a report more efficiently in comparative seclusion. So I have got a room near here, with a little garden, not so pretty as yours; but still a garden is something; and if I want any additional information, why, after all, Mowbray is only a walk.”

”You say well and have done wisely. Besides you have such late hours in London, and hard work. Some country air will do you all the good in the world. That gallery must be tiresome. Do you use shorthand?”

”A sort of shorthand of my own,” said Egremont. ”I trust a good deal to my memory.”

”Ah! you are young. My daughter also has a wonderful memory. For my own part, there are many things which I am not sorry to forget.”

”You see I took you at your word, neighbour,” said Egremont. ”When one has been at work the whole day one feels a little lonely towards night.”

”Very true; and I dare say you find desk work sometimes very dull; I never could make anything of it myself. I can manage a book well enough, if it be well written, and on points I care for; but I would sooner listen than read any time,” said Gerard. ”Indeed I should be right glad to see the minstrel and the storyteller going their rounds again. It would be easy after a day's work, when one has not, as I have now, a good child to read to me.”

”This volume?” said Egremont drawing his chair to the table and looking at Sybil, who intimated a.s.sent by a nod.

”Ah! it's a fine book,” said Gerard, ”though on a sad subject.”

”The History of the Conquest of England by the Normans,” said Egremont, reading the t.i.tle page on which also was written ”Ursula Trafford to Sybil Gerard.”

”You know it?” said Sybil.

”Only by fame.”

”Perhaps the subject may not interest you so much as it does us,” said Sybil.