Somehow she had expected him to do something--what, she did not know; but he was gone, and they were left without stay or help.
'Hush thee, hush thee,' said her mother, trembling all over herself; 'it's for the best.

The Lord knows.' 'But I niver thought he'd leave us,' moaned Sylvia, half in her mother's arms, and thinking of Philip.

Her mother took the words as applied to Daniel.
'And he'd niver ha' left us, my wench, if he could ha' stayed.' 'Oh, mother, mother, it's Philip as has left us, and he could ha' stayed.' 'He'll come back, or mebbe send, I'll be bound.

Leastways he'll be gone to see feyther, and he'll need comfort most on all, in a fremd place--in Bridewell--and niver a morsel of victual or a piece o' money.' And now she sate down, and wept the dry hot tears that come with such difficulty to the eyes of the aged.

And so--first one grieving, and then the other, and each draining her own heart of every possible hope by way of comfort, alternately trying to cheer and console--the February afternoon passed away; the continuous rain closing in the daylight even earlier than usual, and adding to the dreariness, with the natural accompaniments of wailing winds, coming with long sweeps over the moors, and making the sobbings at the windows that always sound like the gasps of some one in great agony.
Meanwhile Philip had hastened back to Monkshaven.