Sylvia is very shy around people. When she lived in the city, her family believed that she was "'Afraid of folks,'" and it wasn't until she moved to the country, away from the "crowded manufacturing town" that she really began to thrive. When her grandmother first brought her to the farm, Sylvia immediately described it as "beautiful" and said that she never wanted to go home again. But as shy as she is around people, she comes alive when she's outside, in nature. When she hears the thrushes sing, her "heart [...] beat[s] fast with pleasure," and when she hears the hunter's whistle, she is "horror-stricken."
Sylvia is young, but not too young. She is charmed by the hunter, once she spends more time with him, though she doesn't understand why he insists on his gun, why he wants to kill the very birds he says that he loves. Delighted by him, nonetheless, "the woman's heart, asleep in the child, was vaguely thrilled by a dream of love." She is not immune to his charms or to the benefits of the $10 he offers, but, ultimately, she puts her beloved nature ahead of both.
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