In old Narragansett; romances and realities

								

obtain a position as private tutor in the family of Colonel Gardiner,
who lived only two miles from Hannah’s home and who was her uncle.
It can easily be divined that when once in Narragansett the happy
lovers found many opportunities of meeting, which were frequently
brought about by the romantic and easy-going colonel, and were not
hindered by Hannah’s mother when she discovered her daughter’s
love-affair. Though Mrs. Robinson would not give her approval she
tacitly gave her aid by helping to conceal the lovers’ meetings from
Rowland Robinson; and it was with her knowledge that the lover came to
Hannah’s chamber, where he often had to be concealed in the friendly
cupboard.
When Peter Simons could not enter the Robinson house he stood by his
true-love’s window under a great lilac-bush, which is still growing,
sturdy and unbroken under the weight of a century of years. In the
concealing shadow of the lilac-bush words of love might be whispered to
the fair girl who leaned from the window, or letters might be exchanged
with comparative safety.
But true love ran no smoother in the eighteenth century than in the
nineteenth, and when one night a fair hand dropped a tender billet into
the gloom of the lilac-bush, old Rowland Robinson chanced to open the
door of his house and he saw the white messenger descend. Speechless
with suspicion and rage he rushed to the lilac-bush and thrust his
buckthorn stick into it with vigorous blows until a man ran out into
the darkness, whom the irate father in the second’s glimpse recognized
as the “wretched French dancing-master” who taught his nephews.
The horrified and disgusted anger of Rowland Robinson and the scene
that ensued within doors can well be imagined; little peace or
happiness was there for Hannah after her father’s discovery. Updike,
in his “History of the Narragansett Church,” says of her life at
this time: “If she walked, her movements were watched; if she rode,
a servant was ordered to be in constant attendance; if a visit was
contemplated, her father immediately suspected it was only a pretext
for an arranged interview; and even after departure, if the most
trifling circumstance gave color to suspicion, he would immediately
pursue and compel her to return. In one instance she left home to visit
her aunt in New London; her father soon afterward discovered from his
windows a vessel leaving Newport and taking a course toward the same
place. Although the vessel and the persons on board were wholly unknown
to him, his jealousies were immediately aroused. Conjecturing it was
Mr. Simons intending to fulfil an arrangement previously made, he
hastened to New London, arrived a few hours only after his daughter,
and insisted on her instant return. No persuasions or argument could
induce him to change his determination, and she was compelled to return
with him.”
Though Rowland Robinson was firm in his determination and constant