"
"And who is there by this green pool that can bring thee news
from the ends of the earth?" cried the old woman, peering into the
lady's face. "Not from my lips mayst thou hear these tidings; yet,
be thou bold, and the daylight shall not pass away from yonder
hill-top before thy wish be granted."
"I will do your bidding though I die," replied the lady
desperately.
The old woman seated herself on the trunk of the fallen tree, threw
aside the hood that shrouded her gray locks, and beckoned her
companion to draw near.
"Kneel down," she said, and lay your forehead on my knees."
She hesitated a moment, but the anxiety that had long been kindling
burned fiercely up within her. As she knelt down, the border of her
garment was dipped into the pool; she laid her forehead on the old
woman's knees, and the latter drew a cloak about the lady's face, so
that she was in darkness. Then she heard the muttered words of prayer,
in the midst of which she started, and would have arisen.
"Let me flee- let me flee and hide myself, that they may not look
upon me!" she cried. But, with returning recollection, she hushed
herself, and was still as death.
For it seemed as if other voices- familiar in infancy, and
unforgotten through many wanderings, and in all the vicissitudes of
her heart and fortune- were mingling with the accents of the prayer.
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