A Heart's Bitterness — page 169: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

A HEART’S BITTERNESS, — 161 ‘Kenneth! Kenneth! Have you forgotten me?” cried ~ Violet. The old woman bent down and moved Violet gently. ‘“* Whoever you are, my dear,” said the old woman, ‘‘ you need to be taken care of quick and well, or into your grave you will go.” So she gathered Violet up in her strong arms, as if the girl had been a mere child, and she did not neglect to slip the handle of the bag over her wrist, and take the silk um- brella in her hand. Not vainly had Mistress Magery Rogers been called ‘* the strongest woman in all Derbyshire.” She carried her own sixty years, and the slender figure of the Countess of Leigh, as 1f both were trifles, and with long, firm steps, she passed | the hazel bushes, and turned into a narrow path, and so to a small thatched cottage. Here she entered. A great dog, gray and heavy with age, met her, and there also camea big, | tortoise-shell cat. These were her only retainers. A bed, — with a white fringed counterpane, stood in one corner, and on this she laid Violet, and began at once to undress her. As she took off one article after another of the dainty cloth- __ ing, she exclaimed: ‘““Why, this must be a princess at least! Did one ever see the like? Sure, this petticoat is like a wedding-gown, and here’s one might be good enough for a christening- robe.” ' She had hung up Violet’s bag, and seemed ‘to have no ‘thought of looking into it, but when she wanted a night- dress, went to a chest of drawers that stood in a corner, and took from it a gown carefully laid up in lavender. No nurse could be more skillful and gentle than this strong cottage dame, and under her ministrations Violet, cooled, soothed, calmed, fell asleep. eva The dame looked at her in her deep slumber—so fair, so - helpless, so like a little child—and shaking her head, said: ‘‘ Here’s a mystery, here’s a mystery! However, she must be well cared for; and as I need things from the ’pothecary and shop, I’ll go out again. I wonder if I shall meet any more lost princesses! It’s like the fairy tales I used to tell the children. Heaven send her sound sleep till I get back!’ So, shading the windows, the dame went out, gently closing the door. EGomichoo S) (ee)