At that moment poor crazy Betsey Thornton came
bounding over the stone wall that separated that from an adjoining
enclosure, and gathering her blanket about her, stood curtesying and
laughing before them, repeating as she did so,
"Poor little Hannah Pease, poor little Hannah Pease--old Ben Thornton,
old Ben Thornton."
"Take some apples, Mrs. Thornton," said Edith, as she regarded her
with a sad expression of countenance.
She took them, curtesied, and with her low, gurgling laugh, leaped
over the wall, and went muttering on to rock or tree, or any other
object that came in her way.
"Edith," said Annie, "what poor Blanche is that, for a poor love sick
maiden, I am sure she must be? As she came with her large blanket
fluttering over the wall, it reminded me of Sir Walter Scott's poor
Blanche, that
"Stood hovering o'er the hollow way,
And fluttered wide her mantle gray."
Edith smiled as she replied,
"You are right--and yet you are wrong in your surmises; she is not the
victim of a faithless lover, but the victim of a faithless husband."
"But," replied Annie, "a victim to man's inconstancy, at any rate?"
"Oh, yes, Annie, that is what all the poets sing."
"And with all this before you, Edith, are you not afraid to unite your
destiny with Orville Somerset?"
"I sometimes fear to; but oh, if he is ever to prove untrue, may it be
before we are united by the solemn covenant of marriage."
"Perhaps it would be better, but I think it will never come to you,
Edith.
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