The Story of Sylvia

Front matter

THE STORY OF SYLVIA. " He stood before her with bent head." The Story oj Sylvia.\ {Page 233. THE STORY OF SYLVIA. BY HAMILTON ROWAN, Author of " CAIRO: ITS HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS. WARD, LOCK, BOWDEN, AND CO., LONDON: WARWICK HOUSE, SALISBURY SQUARE, E.C. NEW YORK : EAST I2TH STREET. MELBOURNE . ST. JAMES'S STREET. SYDNEY I YORK STREET. IS93- (Alt rights reserved.) CONTENTS- CHAP. 1A(_E I. AN ELIGIBLE YOUNG MAN .... I II. FLIRTATION OR FRIENDSHIP .... 12 III. THE ALISONS 24 IV. AN UNCEREMONIOUS

Introduction

. . 32 V. SYLVIA HELPS HARRY TO CRAM . . . .40 VI. SYLVIA'S DINNER-DRESS 47 VII. IDLE DAYS 59 VIII. SYLVIA MAKES GOOD RESOLUTIONS ... 69 IX. A MORNING PROPOSAL 77 X. SYLVIA'S AUNT S3 XI. THE HISTORY OF A KISS 88 XII. FETTERED 99 XIII. CONFIDENCES I04 XIV. A MEETING IN THE DARK . . Ill XV. MURRAY TALKS TO FLOSS, AND SYLVIA TO HER FATHER . . Il8 XVI. PARTING 124 XVII. AN ADAMANTINE PARENT 1 28 S.VIII. THE MARRIAGE EVE 132 3: XIX. TWO CONVERSATIONS 1 38 XX. TILL DEATH US DO

PART 144 XXI.

THE END OF THE HONEYMOON . . . . 1 5 1 XXII. HOME AGAIN 1 56 XXIII. ALMOST A TIFF 159 XXIV. GEORGE EGERTON 1 65 XXV. THE FIRST QUARREL 1 70 XXVI. A STORM CONTENTS. VIII CHAP. PAOF XXVII. THE WAY MURRAY SPENT HIS EVENING . 1 78 XXVIII. RECONCILIATION 184 XXIX. GEORGE WRITES POETRY l8S XXX. HARRY 192 XXXI. HARRY MAKES HIMSELF DISAGREEABLE . . 195 XXXII. HARRY MAKES HIMSELF STILL MORE DIS AGREEABLE 199 XXXIII. THE EIGHTEENTH OF MARCH .... 205 XXXIV. A LULL BEFORE THE STORM . . 211 XXXV. PUNCHESTOWN 2 14 XXXVI. UNDER ARREST 21 7 XXXVII. CRAYSHAW'S MESSAGE 221 XXXVIII. AFTER THE COURT-MARTIAL . . . 226 XXXIX. HIS LAST CHANCE 23 1 XL. ON THE WAY HOME 238 XLI. A GRASS WIDOW 243 XLII. A DELAGHERTY SCANDAL . . . 25 1 XLIII. BEYOND CONTROL 256 XLIV. UNCERTAINTY ..'... 262 XLV. MR. ALISON AND CRAYSHAW ... 268 XLVI.

CRAYSHAW AND MURRAY . . . 273 XLVII. SYLVIA'S DECISION 280 XLVIII. MEETING AGAIN 287 XLIX. HARRY COMES TO EENAH 293 L. A GREAT PIECE OF NEWS . 298 LI. THE FISHERY 303 LII. SYLVIA IS BORED 307 LIU. GEORGE'S WEDDING 312 LIV. FLOSS GOES TO EENAH 320 LV. FLOSS'S VISIT TO EENAH .... 328 LVI. WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN .... 340 LVIL IN THE SNOW .

Chapter I. An Eligible Young Man

"He has three thousand a year of his own, I know on good authority," said Mrs. Carr, in a tone of much satisfaction. Floss mentally reduced the three thousand to one_ and still considered herself in all probability above the mark. " I have only seen him once, but he appeared to me a very handsome young man ; do you not consider him very handsome, my dear ? " " No," said Floss, " I certainly should not call him more than rather good-looking." " Well, my dear, I am sure I don't know what you consider handsome in a man, then," said Mrs. Carr, reprovingly; "at any rate I am glad to hear your brother has him so much to the house. You know my interest in you, my dear Floss, and for your sake I am very glad." " I can't see why Harry's having Mr. Murray over once or twice to shoot should give you any satisfaction on my account," said Floss, a little stiffly.

Mrs. Carr drew her chair a little closer to Floss, and took her unresponsive hand. Very undemonstrative by nature and belonging to a most undemonstrative family, the girl was always disturbed and embarrassed by these caresses. " Now, my dear Floss," said Mrs. Carr, sinking her voice to a confidential tone, " you know I consider you a very sensible girl, and therefore I am not afraid to speak freely to you. Knowing the interest I take in you for your poor dear mother's sake and your own, you can't be surprised that I have often thought anxiously of your future. I don't want to see you a drudge all your life, and at the Elms you so seldom have the chance of meeting any one at all suitable. You must see yourself how desirable marriage is for you — I assure you this seems to me quite a Godsend."

"I can't say that I look upon it in that light," said Floss, reddening with annoyance ; " even if I wanted to, I don't see how I could possibly marry, and as for Mr. Murray — he is by no means the first man Harry has had down for shooting." " I hope you are not going to be foolishly prudish," said Mrs. Carr, patting Floss's hand serenely; "you know quite well that all Harry's friends have been impossible — simply impossible ! But Mr. Murray — and he doesn't seem to think too much of himself, or to be at all stand-off, as some of those good regiments are ; I hear he goes everywhere he is asked. I have been trying to persuade Mr. Carr to call on them, and then I could have asked him to dinner to meet you ; but you know how difficult it is to make my husband call on anybody. I must persuade him to go before our garden party ; it is so pleasant to know young men who are willing to go anywhere."

" I believe they are all willing to accept invitations," said Floss, with an effort to turn the conversation away from Mr. Murray, which she might have known from experience would be useless. " Who cares about a married man like Captain Atterly — yes, I know he is married, though he has not brought his wife here with him ; and the other subal tern, Mr. Shaw, is only a boy, and I don't think he has a farthing. Oh, no ! Mr. Murray is the only one possible, and you may be sure there will be a dead set made at him. The way the Grimshaws have run after him already is disgraceful, but then to be sure it is a dreadful thing to have six unmarried daughters — and all of them so plain too. Still, I think she need not be quite so barefaced about it." Floss had by this time subsided into silence ; she knew by experience that all Mrs. Carr required or wished for was a reasonable appearance of interest and an occasional remark.

" You know you may always count on me if you require a chaperon, Floss ; I have heard that there is some talk of getting up a dance in barracks. Mr. Coulson was with us on Sunday and he spoke of it, and if you wanted a chaperon for that — ? " " It is very kind of you, Mrs. Carr," said Floss, quietly, "but you know I never go to dances." " Oh, my dear, circumstances alter cases," said Mrs. Carr, significantly. THE STORY OF SYLVlA. 4 "But nothing has as yet altered the fact that I can't dance, and have no money to waste over a dress," said Floss, serenely to all appearance, but with just a little hidden pang of regret. But Mrs. Carr's thoughts were so engrossed with Mr. Murray arid the immediate present, that she scarcely attended to Floss's answer. " I rather fancy he must belong to the Murrays of Perthshire — the very nicest people if so.

There is an Arthur Murray among them who might be the same — I saw, in the army list, that this man's initials are A. C. If so he is the eldest son, and his father must be quite an old man." " His father is dead, I know," said Floss, and then she wished she had refrained from showing she knew anything on the subject. " Then he can't belong to that family, and I had quite made up my mind that he did ! Well, at any rate it's certain enough about the money, whatever his people may be. The St. Johns — you have heard me speak of the St. Johns ? — they knew him when the regiment was at the Curragh, and they say he used to hunt a great deal, which of course he could not have done without money. He had something to do with the Castle, Mrs. St. John thinks, and at any rate he used to go out a great deal, and was very popular.

They did certainly say they had heard of an engagement to a Lady Lucy something or other, but I never believe reports of that kind." " I dare say it is true, or quite as true as the rest," said Floss, flushing a little, " I see no reason for dis believing it ; and really, what does it matter to us ? " But Mrs. Carr had the best of all reasons for refus ing to believe anything that would interfere so much with her wishes for her favourite. Floss was driven to say good-bye earlier than she had intended, by the failure of all subjects to supersede that of the interesting Mr. Murray, but even to the last Mrs. Carr was full of him. " I will do my best to make Mr. Carr call on them," she said, holding Floss's hand ; " I should so like to have him to dinner to meet you. Of course I should ask Mr. Shaw as well ; I hope I am not one of those people who make conspicuous advances " — Floss recognised this as an allusion to the offending Grim shaws — " but it all depends on my being able to per suade Mr. Carr to call.

If he could meet Mr. Murray — or Mr. Shaw — and see how pleasant and civil they are ! But there, I must say Mr. Carr is very obstinate when he takes an idea into his head, and he sets down all officers as what he calls ' stuck-up, conceited puppies ' ; I have wasted my time trying to convince him that Scotch regiments are quite different. Not that we have ever had a regiment of that kind here, Scotch or English, except once, but that he has unluckily never forgotten. Certainly they were very rude ; they scarcely every returned calls, and the way they spoke of the people of the neighbourhood ! But, as I often say to Mr. Carr, that is no reason for setting down all regiments as the same ; and as for these young men — if they do give a dance I shall certainly speak to your father about your going, Floss."

" Oh, please don't ! " said Floss, anxiously. " Nonsense, my dear, you must really let me do as I like for once. It shall be managed, I assure you." And Mrs. Carr dismissed her with many nods and smiles and kisses. Floss refrained from arguing the question till the necessity for discussion should arise. She walked home to the Elms, a little ruffled, as she usually was after a visit to the Carrs. With the best intentions in the world, Mrs. Carr generally succeeded in nothing but thoroughly annoying her. It was not her fault that Floss had attained the mature age of two-and-twenty without having ever been in love, or even had reason to believe any one was in love with her. In vain had that energetic lady planned marriages for her for the last four years with all the eligible young men about Delagherty ; in vain had she investigated the financial condition of every fresh detachment that was stationed there, and urged upon Mr. Carr his duties in the way of calling : she had only succeeded — with the kindliest intentions — in annoying Floss, and not in disturbing the friendly indifference of either side.

It was not that Floss was plain — she was not pretty, and her manner was too abrupt and indifferent — still, Mrs. Carr knew many really plain girls who had been very well married indeed. It was not that she had no chances of meeting men ; besides her opportunities during her visits to Mrs. Carr, Floss's father was the most sociable of men, and her second brother Harry was the same ; they were always having men down to the Elms for shooting or fishing or nothing at all — a very mixed set certainly, that made it perhaps as well that Floss was not too susceptible. AN EL IGIBLE \ 'O UNG MA N. 7 Yet the reason of her indifference was not very difficult to find ; if Mrs. Carr had sought a little further, she might have discovered it in the fact that the girl had no time to waste upon thoughts of this description, either in the abstract or otherwise.

The daily effort entailed by the endeavour to make a very small income do the work of one of double the amount, to supply the wants and look after the com forts of seven people, none of whom were willing to be sacrificed to the others, engrossed Floss's time quite sufficiently, leaving little opportunity for wants and wishes of her own. It was seven years now since her mother's death, and then Floss's girlhood had ended. Her mother's task of pinching and contriving had fallen on her shoulders, and very well had she borne it, but it had left her no time to be young or actively happy. Her father was the gayest and most good-humoured of men, and the pleasantest of companions, but it never entered his head to wonder if Floss had too much thrown upon her ; she looked well and cheerful, and what more could be desired ?

Mr. Egerton had sauntered through life without any great effort of his own : he had lived very comfortably upon his income in his bachelor and early married days, and he felt himself hardly used in these seven children who had come to curtail his comforts. It would have been too much to expect him to give up any of his little pleasures, and certainly his tastes were not expensive. Not that he was unwilling that his children should have their pleasures too ; it was upon Floss that the onus of refusing any of the boys' requests was always thrown. "Certainly, if you wish it, it must be managed somehow," he would say, and when Floss had once or twice asked him how, she had obtained nothing but vague words ; it must just be managed if George or Harry, as the case might be, wanted it. But Floss could not view things with the same cheerful con fidence.

Harry was his father's own son, thoughtless, idle, and content to live in the present, with perhaps a little more sweet temper and a little less selfishness than Mr. Egerton. He had got through his school life with as little work and as much amusement as possible, and he was at present supposed to be reading at home for a civil-service exam., though the attractions of fishing daily proved too much for his resolution. George was quite different ; at school he had worked hard, and he had passed brilliantly into the army, but having done this, he seemed content to rest on his laurels, and allow his family liberally to assist his subaltern's pay. George's tastes were not by any means expensive, and all of the most ladylike description, yet somehow he managed to get through a good deal of money, though he never failed to be able to explain the absolute necessity for all he ex pended.

Then there was Billy, an overgrown boy of sixteen, who was growing up rough and boorish at a second rate Irish school. But somebody must go to the wall, and Floss was uncomfortably conscious that the twins and Billy had been the ones to suffer. Dicky, the youngest, a sharp but spoiled child of seven, Floss was herself struggling to instruct, with much con sciousness of her own ignorance. Considering all this, it is not perhaps surprising that she had not very much time to give to her own concerns. Had she had time to spare for her own amusement, money would have been wanting for clothes and such necessaries — money which could not be spared. There lay upstairs, in a box in the lumber room, the relics of Floss's one gaiety — a white dress, a cheap fan, and a few ribbons. Just at first, four years ago, it had given her a pang to think of it lying there uselessly, but now it was almost forgotten.

She had allowed herself to be persuaded into that much-thought-of ball by Mrs. Carr, for her father went no further than careless approval. She had managed to convince herself that the dress could be afforded, and that the twins' jackets would do very well for that winter, and consequently for the rest of the year those shabby jackets had been a bitter reproach to her. Neither had the ball been all felicity : she danced badly, and she was not pretty enough to counter balance this defect, nor amusing enough, being in truth almost tongue-tied by shyness. It had been a failure in every way, and Floss had made, and kept, a resolution that her first ball should be her last, with out too much regret. She had no lack of occupation, and as for amuse ment — why there was the garden to work in, which required all her efforts to prevent it from degenera ting into a wilderness, since there was no gardener to look after it.

The Elms was a large place — much too large for the Egertons to keep up, with their means. Floss's tidy soul suffered much from the disorder which all her efforts could not restrain. The garden was a large one, and she was obliged to content herself with cultivating a very small part of it and letting the rest run wild ; even the two long avenues were apt to become grass-grown and disreputable. In the fields around the garden Mr. Egerton carried on a little perfunctory farming, which was by no means remunerative, and beyond was the lake, where the boys shot in winter and fished in summer, and which fortunately required no keeping in order. The Elms itself was a large, square, ugly house, standing among a few stray trees and with nothing very par ticular about it cither inside or out. Floss sometimes felt inclined to envy the Alisons, whose place was only separated from the Elms by a hedge, and who, with much smaller grounds, had a very much larger income, and such a pretty house.

It was not nearly as big as the Elms, and was only two storeys high ; a long, low building, with jutting corners, and porticoes and quaint windows, and every thing about always so entirely neat and in order. But then Mr. Alison had plenty of money, and only one child ; he could have kept up a much larger place than Heath Cottage if he had chosen, but he had come there long ago in less prosperous days, and did not care to leave it. Floss had to pass by the Alisons' gate on her way home from the Cans, but the vista of trim lawns and terraces caused her nothing but satisfaction to-day ; indeed she was not given to discontent — it was only when the weeds would grow so unnaturally quickly, and the children would play on the flower-beds ! CHAPTER IT. FLIRTATION OR FRIENDSHIP? FLOSS got home rather late for lunch, and found Mr. Murray and Billy had come up from fishing and were awaiting her.

Harry had remained on the lake and contented himself with a sandwich, feeling doubtful of being able to withstand the united efforts of his conscience and Floss if he came back to the house while so thoroughly aware of the claims of a certain French play upstairs. Mr. Murray was a tall, stalwart young man, with pronounced features, and an habitually serious expression. Perhaps it was this expression of seriousness that had made Mrs. Carr think him so suitable for sober Floss, and which caused him to impress new acquaint ances as a thoroughly dependable and sedate young man. He had very dark, melancholy eyes, which had gained him much feminine admiration, a brown moustache, hiding a certain weakness about his mouth, and a very grave, deliberate manner. Murray was always self-possessed, and very seldom moved from his outward calm.

Floss greeted him cheerfully; she was too well accustomed to Mrs. Carr to have her serenity at all disturbed by the remembrance of that lady's words ; such matrimonial projects on her behalf always annoyed her a little at the time, but were easily for gotten. Billy was in a great hurry to get his lunch over and go out again to the lake, but Murray, besides being naturally deliberate and not quite so keen about fishing, seemed on this day very well content to remain where he was, and all Billy's efforts to hasten him proved vain. That youth could at length restrain his impatience no longer on seeing his companion serenely proceed to help himself to some biscuits, talking tranquilly to Floss meanwhile. " Look here, Murray," he said, " aren't you nearly ready ? Don't let us spend the whole afternoon here."

"Don't let me keep you," said Murray, who in truth felt he could spare Billy very well, " I sha'n't go down yet ; I intend going to help Miss Egerton feed the chickens first, if she will let me — and in fact I am in no hurry." " Oh, don't bother with Floss," said Billy, with the roughness which made his sister often blush for him, " don't imagine there's any need for stopping out of politeness ; you had much better come on." "No, thank you," said Murray, serenely. And he remained, rather perturbing Floss by doing so. " You had much better go with Billy," she said, as that youth departed huffily ; " feeding chickens is cer tainly not much in your line— it will only bore you." " Haven't you known me long enough by this time, to be aware that I never do anything I don't like, Miss Egerton ? " he answered lightly ; " I must have concealed my failings better than I imagined !

" " Come by all means, then," said Floss ; " I will fetch Dicky to help us, and then we can start." Now there had been a time when Murray had con sidered Dicky as an unobjectionable third during his tcte-d-tctcs with Floss, but he had very soon been dis abused of this idea. There was an excellent under standing between them at present ; Murray presented Dicky with numerous boxes of chocolate, in return for which that unpleasantly sharp child was well aware that his absence was expected. Floss, knowing his partiality for the society of his elders, was sometimes a little surprised, but Dicky kept his counsel and ate his chocolates. That very morning Murray had taken the trouble of going round by Delagherty on his way from barracks to secure Dicky a fresh supply, and he did feel it would be a little hard if he was to have that small person's society forced upon him after all.

" I was beginning to entertain a faint hope that for once I should have you without a child as well," he said, in a somewhat injured tone ; "don't you think," persuasively, " that Dicky is very happy wherever he may be ? " It was pretty evident that the young man was fairly at home at the Elms, and also that he was well accustomed to have what he wanted. Floss yielded, guiltily conscious of satisfaction ; and having gained his point, Murray was very well content to lazily ? 15 saunter by her side to the yard, and even to exert himself to be useful when there. The fishing on the lake was not particularly good, and on the whole amusement at Delagherty was not of the most exciting description. Murray missed the life of a large barracks ; Captain Atterly, who commanded his detachment, was not a congenial spirit, and the other subaltern, Shaw, was newly joined, and both young and green.

The election, the reason for their presence at Delagherty, was over, yet nothing had been heard of their departure. It was dull, but Murray was willing to make the best of things. So after a morning spent at the club, of which he was an honorary member, or lounging about the shops with any of the Delagherty girls he happened to come across, he was glad enough to find a pleasant way of passing his afternoons. Floss had at first roused his interest by her abso lute indifference to his society ; she was not accus tomed to look upon Harry's friends as likely to contribute in any way to her amusement, and she had not the slightest desire that they should. But Murray was of a different opinion. He was a young man much in the habit of devoting himself to one girl at a time, and ver)- seldom without a special friend of the fair sex.

He had caused his regiment much anxiety at times by the engrossing nature of his temporary devotions ; they strongly objected to the marriage of their officers, and felt that Murray, in particular, would be an incalculable loss to the mess. Latterly their fear had been somewhat allayed for a time by a strong flirtation with Captain Atterly's wife, into which he had thrown himself after his usual headlong fashion ; she was a faded but still pretty woman, very willing to have a man as much the fashion and as well versed in the art of warm flirtation as Mr. Murray attach himself to her as cavalicre sen-ante, and they went about everywhere together, and suc ceeded in getting themselves considerably talked about through Dublin. But Captain Atterly had not brought his wife with him to Delagherty when they were ordered there on detachment duty, and Murray's feeling for her was not of a nature to survive separation.

The Delagherty girls in general had a reputation for fastness which he soon found did not in any way belie them, and though being met more than half-way saved him trouble, still there was a deplorable want of excite ment about it. Floss's attraction at first, perhaps, consisted merely in her indifference, but, as he found himself gradually overcoming this, her society grew more and more pleasant to him. There was a boyishness about Murray still, in spite of his twenty-six years and the extent to which he had knocked about the world, and he yielded to Floss's growing attraction for him heedlessly as usual. He was always more than half in love with the girl whom he happened, for the time being, to admire, ana there was an undercurrent of warmth in his manner to Floss which was pleasant to her in an unrecog nised way.

So he was very well content to delay his fishing and saunter about with her ; so well content, indeed, that when there was no longer any excuse for linger ing with the chickens, he begged to be allowed to walk as far as the garden with Floss, who was con templating a busy afternoon there. " I will take my rod and go on from there," he said, " and I can carry a hoe or a spade, or whatever you want." And even when they reached the garden he did not seem very much inclined to go further. " I must really have a rest," he said, in his slow, grave tones ; " you see, Miss Egerton, I am not accustomed to feeding chickens, and it is rather hard work. And you must sit down too, or your industry will reproach me." There was a garden chair close to the flower-bed where Floss intended to commence her labours, and though she laughed, she yielded to his plea for idle ness.

" But perhaps you will be cold. I am equal to fetching you a shawl, if you will let me ? " said Murray. The anxious solicitude in his voice was very pleasant to Floss, though it is to be feared this young man would have spoken quite as solicitously to any thing in the shape of a girl. But she was not accus tomed to being taken care of or considered. At the Elms it was always supposed to be Floss who had no particular wishes — who did not mind having her plans upset, or some extra trouble imposed upon her — and she found it very pleasant to be treated with such deference and consideration. THE S TOR Y OF S YL VIA . 18 She only laughed and said : " Nonsense ! cold in July ! " but she was pleased all the same. Murray laid down his rod and established himself on the grass at her feet, a favourite position of his.

" This has been the best day I have had for a long time," he said in a low voice ; " I never seem to see much of you now, somehow. Can I stay for dinner to-night, and have a real good talk with you after ? " " Yes, do," said Floss, and then became a little thoughtful. Murray looked at her, and flattered himself that he was the cause of her grave silence — and so he was, though scarcely in the way he fancied. Floss was just then anxiously considering the possibilities of dinner with regard to the young man, and more sentimental feelings were for the time shut out by such vulgar and commonplace cares. From motives of economy the Egertons contented themselves with high tea when alone, and Floss doubted the practica bility of raising a dinner on such short notice, while she knew her father would be annoyed if it did not come up to his ideas of what was due to a guest.