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"O, what a day is this! what a day is this!" said the poor mother, her womanish affliction already exhausted by sobs and tears, and now almost lost in terror for the state in which she beheld her husband "O, what an hour is this! and naebody to help a poor lone woman O, gudemither, could ye but speak a word to him! wad ye but bid him be comforted!"
And looking round the fire, as if in a state of unconscious uncertainty of which she complained, old Elspeth relapsed into her habitual and mechanical occupation of twirling the spindle. "Eh, sirs!" said Jenny Rintherout, under her breath to her gossip, "it's awsome to hear your gudemither break out in that gait it's like the dead speaking to the living."
"O, what a day is this! what a day is this!" said the poor mother, her womanish affliction already exhausted by sobs and tears, and now almost lost in terror for the state in which she beheld her husband "O, what an hour is this! and naebody to help a poor lone woman O, gudemither, could ye but speak a word to him! wad ye but bid him be comforted!"
"O what was it, grannie?" and "What was it, gudemither?" and "What was it, Luckie Elspeth?" asked the children, the mother, and the visitor, in one breath. "Never ask what it was," answered the old sibyl, "but pray to God that ye arena left to the pride and wilfu'ness o' your ain hearts: they may be as powerful in a cabin as in a castle I can bear a sad witness to that.
"Troth, hinny," answered the Nereid, "if they let naebody but papists come there, it'll no be muckle o' a show in this country, for the auld harlot, as honest Mr. Here she exalted her voice, and exclaimed twice or thrice, "Gudemither! gudemither!" but, lost in the apathy of age and deafness, the aged sibyl she addressed continued plying her spindle without understanding the appeal made to her.
"Is there not," he said, "an old woman lodging in this or one of the neighbouring cottages, called Elspeth, who was long resident at Craigburnfoot of Glenallan?" "It's my gudemither, my lord," said Margaret; "but she canna see onybody e'enow Ohon! we're dreeing a sair weird we hae had a heavy dispensation!"
"We might be a' dead and buried too," said Maggie, "for onything ye wad ken about it;" and then, raising her voice to the stretch of her mother-in-law's comprehension, she added, "It's the auld Countess, gudemither."
"O what was it, grannie?" and "What was it, gudemither?" and "What was it, Luckie Elspeth?" asked the children, the mother, and the visitor, in one breath. "Never ask what it was," answered the old sibyl, "but pray to God that ye arena left to the pride and wilfu'ness o' your ain hearts: they may be as powerful in a cabin as in a castle I can bear a sad witness to that.
"Is there not," he said, "an old woman lodging in this or one of the neighbouring cottages, called Elspeth, who was long resident at Craigburnfoot of Glenallan?" "It's my gudemither, my lord," said Margaret; "but she canna see onybody e'enow Ohon! we're dreeing a sair weird we hae had a heavy dispensation!"
"We might be a' dead and buried too," said Maggie, "for onything ye wad ken about it;" and then, raising her voice to the stretch of her mother-in-law's comprehension, she added, "It's the auld Countess, gudemither."
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