"Yes, I thought I could distinguish it, from the road—and thine, Gwladys! It was like a thread of silk in a skein of wool!"
"Since when art thou a bard, Ivor?" she said, with a merry laugh; "I won't know thee in that guise!"
"Oh! I am not taken often in that way," he said; "but some sights would make a bard of anyone!" and he gazed with rapture at the deep, brown eyes.
But Gwladys was proof against any implied compliment, her simple guileless nature was slow to take in any suggested admiration, more especially from Ivor Parry, who she knew was rather given to fun and banter. She had grown up so calmly and quietly, had budded into womanhood so suddenly, as it seemed to Ivor, that with a tender shrinking from disturbing the even tenor of her life, born of true love, he had tried, and successfully, to hide his passion from everyone, more especially from the object of it.
And thus it was that hitherto she had not guessed its existence, neither did she know that she loved Ivor! They had grown up together, had paddled in the same stream, sung in the same glee classes, and latterly, for several years, had worked under the same employer. Ivor had long known that the happiness of his life was bound up in her, while she was only just awaking to the feeling that the boy who, being seven years her elder, had always constituted himself her protector, had grown into the man whom of all the world she was most desirous of pleasing.
During this digression she had thoughtfully inspected her glee book.
"There's a beautiful glee we are learning now, isn't it? only 'tis pity the words are English! There's hard to say, 'Whosse rocey fingares ope the gates of day.'"
"'Tis hard at first," he answered.
A silence fell on them as they approached the village together. Ivor was filled with varied feelings: pleasure at thus having Gwladys all to himself, anxiety lest another should rush in where he feared to tread, and above all, the difficulty of keeping his feelings under proper control in her presence. "Only eighteen," he thought. "I will wait till she is twenty; but meanwhile I will try to win her love."
Oh, blind and foolish Ivor! and no less blind Gwladys! who stood upon the brink of that awakening which should let in a flood of light and happiness upon her life. Both seemed to shrink from drawing aside the curtain which hid the future from their sight; for was it not sufficient happiness thus to meet every day, and almost every hour of the day? Was it not enough for Gwladys to raise her eyes from her work on the rough sail-cloth, and see his stalwart form moving about amongst the bales and cordage, and often to find his clear, blue eyes fixed upon her! A word or a smile from him would raise a flush to her face, and caused a tumultuous flutter under the pink muslin 'kerchief crossed in soft folds over her bosom. She knew it was pleasant to be near him; but that he found the same delight in her presence was beyond the range of her imagination, for was he not her master in one sense, being Hugh Morgan's manager, who trusted him entirely, and made no secret of his intention to take him into partnership?