duty, for her struggles to give bread to her father's board. I did
not say to myself, 'This girl will make a comely fere, a delicate
paramour!' I said, 'This good daughter will make a wife whom an
honest man may take to his heart and cherish!'" Poor Alwyn stopped,
with tears in his voice, struggled with his emotions, and pursued: "My
fortunes were more promising than hers; there was no cause why I might
not hope. True, I had a rival then; young as myself, better born,
comelier; but she loved him not. I foresaw that his love for her--if
love it were--would cease. Methought that her mind would understand
mine; as mine--verily I say it--yearned for hers! I could not look on
the maidens of mine own rank, and who had lived around me, but what--
oh, no, my lord, again I say, not the beauty, but the gifts, the mind,
the heart of Sibyll, threw them all into the shade. You may think it
strange that I--a plain, steadfast, trading, working, careful man--
should have all these feelings; but I will tell you wherefore such as
I sometimes have them, nurse them, brood on them, more than you lords
and gentlemen, with all your graceful arts in pleasing. We know no
light loves! no brief distractions to the one arch passion! We sober
sons of the stall and the ware are no general gallants,--we love
plainly, we love but once, and we love heartily. But who knows not
the proverb, 'What's a gentleman but his pleasure?'--and what's
pleasure but change? When Sibyll came to the palace, I soon heard her
name linked with yours; I saw her cheek blush when you spoke. Well,
well, well! after all, as the old wives tell us, 'Blushing is virtue's
livery.' I said, 'She is a chaste and high-hearted girl.' This will
pass, and the time will come when she can compare your love and mine.
Now, my lord, the time has come. I know that you seek her. Yea, at
this moment, I know that her heart beats for your footstep. Say but
one word,--say that you love Sibyll Warner with the thought of wedding
her,--say that, on your honour, noble Hastings, as gentleman and peer,