"Marry, Heaven forefend!" exclaimed Dame Suddlechop; "this is the very
devil, and something worse!"
"How mean you?" said the damsel, surprised at the vivacity of her
exclamation.
"Why, know ye not," said the dame, "what powerful enemies he has at
Court? know ye not--But blisters on my tongue, it runs too fast for my
wit--enough to say, that you had better make your bridal-bed under a
falling house, than think of young Glenvarloch."
"He IS unfortunate then?" said Margaret; "I knew it--I divined it--
there was sorrow in his voice when he said even what was gay--there
was a touch of misfortune in his melancholy smile--he had not thus
clung to my thoughts had I seen him in all the mid-day glare of
prosperity."
"Romances have cracked her brain!" said Dame Ursula; "she is a
castaway girl--utterly distraught--loves a Scots lord--and likes him
the better for being unfortunate! Well, mistress, I am sorry this is a
matter I cannot aid you in--it goes against my conscience, and it is
an affair above my condition, and beyond my management;--but I will
keep your counsel."
"You will not be so base as to desert me, after having drawn my secret
from me?" said Margaret, indignantly; "if you do, I know how to have
my revenge; and if you do not, I will reward you well. Remember the
house your husband dwells in is my father's property."
"I remember it but too well, Mistress Margaret," said Ursula, after a
moment's reflection, "and I would serve you in any thing in my
condition; but to meddle with such high matters--I shall never forget
poor Mistress Turner, my honoured patroness, peace be with her!--she
had the ill-luck to meddle in the matter of Somerset and Overbury, and
so the great earl and his lady slipt their necks out of the collar,
and left her and some half-dozen others to suffer in their stead.
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