“Ah, sir, I have but this one gown,” said the lovely girl. How will this pastoral simplicity be despised by the ladies who read these pages!
“True,” said the frugal Damœtas, “and ’tis a credit to Silvia that she can say so. But at least she may welcome her spouse in a cheerful style, and abstain from vexing him further with her tears. Did she entreat of him any explication of his unkind remark? It may be she misunderstood his words.”
“Alas, sir, how could they be mistaken? Their meaning was too plain.”
Finding himself again at a loss, Damœtas remained for some moments plunged in thought, until the notes of a melancholy strain discoursed on a shepherd’s pipe heralded the return of Colin, which Silvia, absorbed in the violence of her grief, had not observed. Rubbing his hands merrily, the venerable hermit went forth to meet the mournful youth, and leading him into the cot, presented him to Silvia.
“In the glade,” he said, “I met with a shepherd who was inconsolable because the nymph he worshipped did not return his affection, and in this hut I find a young woman refusing to be comforted because her adored spouse don’t love her. Perhaps they may console one another.”
“Is’t possible?” cried one. “’Twas all my fault!” cried t’other, and they embraced with all imaginable tenderness, while the good Damœtas went on to say—
“Indeed, I can’t but declare you both in the wrong. You, Colin, erred in permitting your gloomy constitution to persuade you of your wife’s aversion for you, and in neglecting to enquire particularly into the truth; and you, Silvia, because you suffered your apprehensions to blind you to the care of that Providence which has so often assisted you in the past, and to go far to alienate the affection of your spouse. Learn then, both of you, to be wiser in the future.”
In this strain Damœtas continued for some time to improve the occasion, until, perceiving with regret that his auditors were so profoundly engrossed in each other as to be altogether unconscious of his exhortations, he withdrew, and left them alone.
CHAPTER XX.
WHICH DESCRIBES A STRATEGIC RETREAT.
From Mrs Fraser to Miss Amelia Turnor.