And--there's Kate, 'squire, looking from the window. Now, ain't she a
sweet creature? Come, 'light--you shall see her close. Make yourself
quite at home, as I do. I make free, for you see the old people have all
along looked upon me as a son, seeing that I am to be one at some time
or other."
They were now at the entrance of as smiling a cottage as the lover of
romance might well desire to look upon. Everything had a cheery,
sunshiny aspect, looking life, comfort, and the "all in all content;"
and, with a feeling of pleasure kindled anew in his bosom by the
prospect, Ralph complied readily with the frank and somewhat informal
invitation of his companion, and was soon made perfectly at home by the
freedom and ease which characterized the manners of the young girl who
descended to receive them. A slight suffusion of the cheek and a
downcast eye, upon the entrance of her lover, indicated a gratified
consciousness on the part of the maiden which did not look amiss. She
was seemingly a gentle, playful creature, extremely young, apparently
without a thought of guile, and altogether untouched with a solitary
presentiment of the unhappy fortunes in store for her.
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