The beldam caught her cue readily and by innuendo, without giving
Lady Ashton the pain of distinct explanation. She was in many respects
qualified for the part she played, which indeed could not be efficiently
assumed without some knowledge of the human heart and passions. Dame
Gourlay perceived that Lucy shuddered at her external appearance, which
we have already described when we found her in the death-chamber of
blind Alice; and while internally she hated the poor girl for the
involuntary horror with which she saw she was regarded, she commenced
her operations by endeavouring to efface or overcome those prejudices
which, in her heart, she resented as mortal offences. This was easily
done, for the hag's external ugliness was soon balanced by a show of
kindness and interest, to which Lucy had of late been little accustomed;
her attentive services and real skill gained her the ear, if not the
confidence, of her patient; and under pretence of diverting the solitude
of a sick-room, she soon led her attention captive by the legends in
which she was well skilled, and to which Lucy's habit of reading and
reflection induced her to "lend an attentive ear.
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