"Do not blame yourself, good mother, if
they show not all the gilded coaches and six, and the lovely bride and
gay bridegroom you would fain have promised us."
"The combinations turn to evil--all evil. Pah! it is the old story. I
was afraid of the cards, and they have mastered me."
"Was there no warning conveyed in these strange combinations, Dame?"
asked Johnstone eagerly.
"I deal not in warnings," said Rachel hastily.
"Did I deal in warnings, the reading of the cards might prove useful to
you both."
"Come, come!" he said, "you speak in riddles. The warning. Is it the
same for this gentle lady as for my rough self?"
"Aye, aye, for both--both." She bent down, and laid a dark hand on the
shoulder of each, and peering into one face after another, she muttered:
"Beware of Wild Jack Barnstaple!"
Both started. John Johnstone flushed angrily: he rose to his feet.
"We have had enough of this fooling," he said. "The day is advancing,
madam," turning to Betty. "Will you vouchsafe me the extreme pleasure of
being your escort home?"
As Betty was about to answer, she was arrested by the sound of singing
outside, in a voice so wild, loud, and sweet, it seemed the very
embodiment of the music of Nature.
"Who is singing like that?" asked Betty. "How beautiful! and how
marvellously sad.
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