The lights were sparkling in the village casements before the trwellers reached the termination of the pathway—and Rawlings with his companion passed through the garden by a private wicket, and unobserved, reached the rear of his father’s cottage. The security and confidence ever felt in dwellings “far from town,” were here apparent—for the window of the little parlour was neither protected by shutter or curtain from theft or curiosity; and while the retired soldier luxuriated with his pipe, his pretty daughter was engaged in plying her needle busily, in perfect unconsciousness that the eyes of a lover were gazing fondly on her from without.
“Heaven bless ye both!” ejaculated the warm-hearted sailor, “We must not appear too suddenly; come, we’ll step over to the Lion, and send the landlady across to tell father and sister that the wanderers are returned.”
William Rawlings was the pride of the village; every rustic coquette was flattered by his preference; and it was said that it was rather out of pique than love, that the miller’s pretty daughter had listened to the suit of the jolly landlord of “the Lion.” Certain it is, that her reception of the handsome sailor was much more ardent, than wliat he of the spigot would have approved, had he been a witness to the unexpected meeting.
“Why, William, art thee alive, man?”
“Alive, girl; ay, and likely to live. I need not ask thee for Julia and the old man—I had a peep at both through the parlour window. Step over, dear Betsey, and let them quietly know that here I am, sound as British oak, and an old comrade along with me.”
“Lord! they will be so overjoyed,” exclaimed the hostess, as she skipped across the street, and knocked at the old quarter-master’s hall-door.
“Ah! Betsey, is it thou?” said the veteran, as he knocked the ashes from his pipe, and held his hand out to the visitor. “What news, my girl?—girl—no, no—I must call thee dame now.”
“Look in my face,” returned the pretty hostess, “const thou not read good tidings there?”
“What mean ye, Betsey?” inquired the old man’s daughter.
“Mean?—nothing but what I say; I am the bearer of the best news you have listened to for the last six months.”