Part 29 (1/2)
”Why, you don't mean to say you wouldn't marry her if she didn't!” cried Dorothy. ”I'm ashamed of you, Richard.”
”It would remove all opposition, at all events,” said her brother.
”So it would,” said Dorothy; ”and now I'll tell you another notion of mine, Richard. Somehow or other, it has come into my head that Alizon is the daughter of-whom do you think?”
”Whom!” he cried.
”Guess,” she rejoined.
”I can't,” he exclaimed, impatiently.
”Well, then, I'll tell you without more ado,” she answered. ”Mind, it's only my notion, and I've no precise grounds for it. But, in my opinion, she's the daughter of the lady who has just left the room.”
”Of Mistress Nutter!” e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Richard, starting. ”What makes you think so?”
”The extraordinary and otherwise unaccountable interest she takes in her,” replied Dorothy. ”And, if you recollect, Mistress Nutter had an infant daughter who was lost in a strange manner.”
”I thought the child died,” replied Richard; ”but it may be as you say. I hope it is so.”
”Time will show,” said Dorothy; ”but I have made up my mind about the matter.”
At this moment Nicholas a.s.sheton came up to them, looking grave and uneasy.
”What has happened?” asked Richard, anxiously.
”I have just received some very unpleasant intelligence,” replied Nicholas. ”I told you of a menace uttered by that confounded Potts, on quitting me after his ducking. He has now spoken out plainly, and declares he overheard part of a conversation between Mistress Nutter and Elizabeth Device, which took place in the ruins of the convent church this morning, and he is satisfied that-”
”Well!” cried Richard, breathlessly.
”That Mistress Nutter is a witch, and in league with witches,” continued Nicholas.
”Ha!” exclaimed Richard, turning deathly pale.
”I suspect the rascal has invented the charge,” said Nicholas; ”but he is quite unscrupulous enough to make it; and, if made, it will be fatal to our relative's reputation, if not to her life.”
”It is false, I am sure of it,” cried Richard, torn by conflicting emotions.
”Would I could think so!” cried Dorothy, suddenly recollecting Mistress Nutter's strange demeanour in the little chapel, and the unaccountable influence she seemed to exercise over the old crone. ”But something has occurred to-day that leads me to a contrary conviction.”
”What is it? Speak!” cried Richard.
”Not now-not now,” replied Dorothy.
”Whatever suspicions you may entertain, keep silence, or you will destroy Mistress Nutter,” said Nicholas.
”Fear me not,” rejoined Dorothy. ”Oh, Alizon!” she murmured, ”that this unhappy question should arise at such a moment.”
”Do you indeed believe the charge, Dorothy?” asked Richard, in a low voice.