to aface which was excessively pretty, though it never could be calledhandsome. It also was round, with the slightest tendency to the ovalshape, richly coloured, though somewhat olive in complexion, with dimplesin cheek and chin, and the most scarlet lips Owen had ever seen, thatwere too short to meet over the small pearly teeth. The nose was themost defective feature; but the eyes were splendid. They were so long,so lustrous, yet at times so very soft under their thick fringe ofeyelash! The nut-brown hair was carefully braided beneath the border ofdelicate lace: it was evident the little village beauty knew how to makethe most of all her attractions, for the gay colours which were displayedin her neckerchief were in complete harmony with the complexion.
Owen was much attracted, while yet he was amused, by the evident coquetrythe girl displayed, collecting around her a whole bevy of young fellows,for each of whom she seemed to have some gay speech, some attractive lookor action. In a few minutes young Griffiths of Bodowen was at her side,brought thither by a variety of idle motives, and as her undividedattention was given to the Welsh heir, her admirers, one by one, droppedoff, to seat themselves by some less fascinating but more attentive fairone. The more Owen conversed with the girl, the more he was taken; shehad more wit and talent than he had fancied possible; a self-abandon andthoughtfulness, to boot, that seemed full of charms; and then her voicewas so clear and sweet, and her actions so full of grace, that Owen wasfascinated before he was well aware, and kept looking into her bright,blushing face, till her uplifted flashing eye fell beneath his earnestgaze.
While it thus happened that they were silent—she from confusion at theunexpected warmth of his admiration, he from an unconsciousness ofanything but the beautiful changes in her flexile countenance—the manwhom Owen took for her father came up and addressed some observation tohis daughter, from whence he glided into some commonplace thoughrespectful remark to Owen, and at length engaging him in some slight,local conversation, he led the way to the account of a spot on thepeninsula of Penthryn, where teal abounded, and concluded with beggingOwen to allow him to show him the exact place, saying that whenever theyoung Squire felt so inclined, if he would honour him by a call at hishouse, he would take him across in his boat. While Owen listened, hisattention was not so much absorbed as to be unaware that the littlebeauty at his side was refusing one or two who endeavoured to draw herfrom her place by invitations to dance. Flattered by his ownconstruction of her refusals, he again directed all his attention to her,till she was called away by her father, who was leaving the scene offestivity. Before he left he reminded Owen of his promise, and added—
“Perhaps, sir, you do not know me. My name is Ellis Pritchard, and Ilive at Ty Glas, on this side of Moel Gêst; anyone can point it out toyou.”
When the father and daughter had left, Owen slowly prepared for his ridehome; but encountering the hostess, he could not resist asking a fewquestions relative to Ellis Pritchard and his pretty daughter. Sheanswered shortly but respectfully, and then said, rather hesitatingly—
“Master Griffiths, you know the triad, ‘Tri pheth tebyg y naill i’rllall, ysgnbwr heb yd, mail deg heb ddiawd, a merch deg heb ei geirda’(Three things are alike: a fine barn without corn, a fine cup withoutdrink, a fine woman without her reputation).” She hastily quitted him,and Owen rode slowly to his unhappy home.
Ellis Pritchard, half farmer and half fisherman, was shrewd, and keen,and worldly; yet he was good-natured, and sufficiently generous to havebecome rather a popular man among his equals. He had been struck withthe young Squire’s attention to his pretty daughter, and was notinsensible to the advantages to be derived from it. Nest would not bethe first peasant girl, by any means, who had been transplanted to aWelsh manor-house as its mistress; and, accordingly, her father hadshrewdly given the admiring young man some pretext for furtheropportunities of seeing her.
As for Nest herself, she had somewhat of her father’s worldliness, andwas fully alive to the superior station of her new admirer, and quiteprepared to slight all her old sweethearts on his account. But then shehad something more of feeling in her reckoning; she had not beeninsensible to the earnest yet comparatively refined homage which Owenpaid her; she had noticed his expressive and occasionally handsomecountenance with admiration, and was flattered by his so immediatelysingling her out from her companions. As to the hint which Martha Thomashad thrown out, it is enough to say that Nest was very giddy, and thatshe was motherless. She had high spirits and a great love of admiration,or, to use a softer term, she loved to please; men, women, and children,all, she delighted to gladden with her smile and voice. She coquetted,and flirted, and went to the extreme lengths of Welsh courtship, till theseniors of the village shook their heads, and cautioned their daughtersagainst her acquaintance. If not absolutely guilty, she had toofrequently been on the verge of guilt.
Even at the time, Martha Thomas’s hint made but little impression onOwen, for his senses were otherwise occupied; but in a few days therecollection thereof had wholly died away, and one warm glorious summer’sday, he bent his steps toward Ellis Pritchard’s with a beating heart;for, except some very slight flirtations at Oxford, Owen had never beentouched; his thoughts, his fancy, had been otherwise engaged.
Ty Glas was built against one of the lower rocks of Moel Gêst, which,indeed, formed a side to the low, lengthy house. The materials of thecottage were the shingly stones which had fallen from above, plasteredrudely together, with deep recesses for the small oblong windows.Altogether, the exterior was much ruder than Owen had expected; butinside there seemed no lack of comforts. The house was divided into twoapartments, one large, roomy, and dark, into which Owen enteredimmediately; and before the blushing Nest came from the inner chamber(for she had seen the young Squire coming, and hastily gone to make somealteration in her dress), he had had time to look around him, and notethe various little particulars of the room. Beneath the window (whichcommanded a magnificent view) was an oaken dresser, replete with drawersand cupboards, and brightly polished to a rich dark colour. In thefarther part of the room Owen could at first distinguish little, enteringas he did from the glaring sunlight, but he soon saw that there were twooaken beds, closed up after the manner of the Welsh: in fact, thedomitories of Ellis Pritchard and the man who served under him, both onsea and on land. There was the large wheel used for spinning wool, leftstanding on the middle of the floor, as if in use only a few minutesbefore; and around the ample chimney hung flitches of bacon, driedkids’-flesh, and fish, that was in process of smoking for winter’s store.
Before Nest had shyly dared to enter, her father, who had been mendinghis nets down below, and seen Owen winding up to the house, came in andgave him a hearty yet respectful welcome; and then Nest, downcast andblushing, full of the consciousness which her father’s advice andconversation had not failed to inspire, ventured to join them. To Owen’smind this reserve and shyness gave her new charms.
It was too bright, too hot, too anything to think of going to shoot tealtill later in the day, and Owen was delighted to accept a hesitatinginvitation to share the noonday meal. Some ewe-milk cheese, very hardand dry, oat-cake, slips of the dried kids’-flesh broiled, after havingbeen previously soaked in water for a few minutes, delicious butter andfresh butter-milk, with a liquor called “diod griafol” (made from theberries of the _Sorbus aucuparia_, infused in water and then fermented),composed the frugal repast; but there was something so clean and neat,and withal such a true welcome, that Owen had seldom enjoyed a meal somuch. Indeed, at that time of day the Welsh squires differed from thefarmers more in the plenty and rough abundance of their manner of livingthan in the refinement of style of their table.
At the present day, down in Llyn, the Welsh gentry are not a wit behindtheir Saxon equals in the expensive elegances of life; but then (whenthere was but one pewter-service in all Northumberland) there was nothingin Ellis Pritchard’s mode of living that grated on the young Squire’ssense of refinement.
Little was said by that young pair of wooers d
uring the meal; the fatherhad all the conversation to himself, apparently heedless of the ardentlooks and inattentive mien of his guest. As Owen became more serious inhis feelings, he grew more timid in their expression, and at night, whenthey returned from their shooting-excursion, the caress he gave Nest wasalmost as bashfully offered as received.
This was but the first of a series of days devoted to Nest in reality,though at first he thought some little disguise of his object wasnecessary. The past, the future, was all forgotten in those happy daysof love.
And every worldly plan, every womanly wile was put in practice by EllisPritchard and his daughter, to render his visits agreeable and alluring.Indeed, the very circumstance of his being welcome was enough to attractthe poor young man, to whom the feeling so produced was new and full ofcharms. He left a home where the certainty of being thwarted made himchary in expressing his wishes; where no tones of love ever fell on hisear, save those addressed to others; where his presence