Out of the house there were the most contradictory opinions of her, especially if the voices of women were to be listened to.  She was ‘an ill-favoured, overgrown thing’; ‘just as bonny as the first rose i’ June, and as sweet i’ her nature as t’ honeysuckle a-climbing round it;’ she was ’a vixen, with a tongue sharp enough to make yer very heart bleed;’ she was ’just a bit o’ sunshine wheriver she went;’ she was sulky, lively, witty, silent, affectionate, or cold-hearted, according to the person who spoke about her.  In fact, her peculiarity seemed to be this—­that every one who knew her talked about her either in praise or blame; in church, or in market, she unconsciously attracted attention; they could not forget her presence, as they could that of other girls perhaps more personally attractive.  Now all this was a cause of anxiety to her mother, who began to feel as if she would rather have had her child passed by in silence than so much noticed.  Bell’s opinion was, that it was creditable to a woman to go through life in the shadow of obscurity,—­never named except in connexion with good housewifery, husband, or children.  Too much talking about a girl, even in the way of praise, disturbed Mrs. Robson’s opinion of her; and when her neighbours told her how her own daughter was admired, she would reply coldly, ‘She’s just well enough,’ and change the subject of conversation.  But it was quite different with her husband.  To his looser, less-restrained mind, it was agreeable to hear of, and still more to see, the attention which his daughter’s beauty received.  He felt it as reflecting consequence on himself.  He had never troubled his mind with speculations as to whether he himself was popular, still less whether he was respected.  He was pretty welcome wherever he went, as a jovial good-natured man, who had done adventurous and illegal things in his youth, which in some measure entitled him to speak out his opinions on life in general in the authoritative manner he generally used; but, of the two, he preferred consorting with younger men, to taking a sober stand of respectability with the elders of the place; and he perceived, without reasoning upon it, that the gay daring spirits were more desirous of his company when Sylvia was by his side than at any other time.  One or two of these would saunter up to Haytersbank on a Sunday afternoon, and lounge round his fields with the old farmer.  Bell kept herself from the nap which had been her weekly solace for years, in order to look after Sylvia, and on such occasions she always turned as cold a shoulder to the visitors as her sense of hospitality and of duty to her husband would permit.  But if they did not enter the house, old Robson would always have Sylvia with him when he went the round of his land.  Bell could see them from the upper window:  the young men standing in the attitudes of listeners, while Daniel laid down the law on some point, enforcing his words by pantomimic actions with his thick stick; and Sylvia, half turning