"He needn't be afraid. But Silvy won't tell him so. Why not? Oh, she
likes to be amused. Silvy likes to be amused!
"Silvy knows! Silvy knows!" She continued, after another terrible pause.
"She set eyes on you, standin' there. That's the one, she says, and she
says it a long time. That's the queen of Heaven. She wouldn't hurt Silvy,
poor Silvy! She's got a key. So she'll straighten it out maybe. Silvy
can't, she's so tired. When Silvy got up in the mornin', it was early.
Oh, so still! And a bird was flyin' up--up. Silvy couldn't see--so far to
heaven. It made Silvy cry. So strange not to be any tired in the
mornin'."
Silvy made a last painful effort to collect her thoughts, before her face
resumed its habitual, far away, half smiling expression.
Then she said, "Silvy comes up the hill all alone. Not the way them
others, and she see the fire burnin'. But it was dark in the bush. Silvy
heard 'em talkin' terribly. It was Beck and George Olver. 'I'll make an
honest home for you, Beck.' And she says, terribly, she no deserve. And
he says, she better than him, and won't she come? And she cries so, 'My
heart is broke!' And how good to live with him she knows, now--so honest
and true--but she no fit, and, oh, 'My heart is broke! my heart is
broke!'"
The scene, the vividness of these words had not yet faded in the least
from Silvy's memory.
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