In a
private interview with Miss Ashton, he was deeply moved by her distress,
and could not but admit the justice of her request to be permitted a
direct communication with Ravenswood upon the subject of their solemn
contract. When she urged to him the great uncertainty under which she
laboured whether her letter had been ever forwarded, the old man paced
the room with long steps, shook his grey head, rested repeatedly for a
space on his ivory-headed staff, and, after much hesitation, confessed
that he thought her doubts so reasonable that he would himself aid in
the removal of them.
"I cannot but opine, Miss Lucy," he said, "that your worshipful lady
mother hath in this matter an eagerness whilk, although it ariseth
doubtless from love to your best interests here and hereafter, for the
man is of persecuting blood, and himself a persecutor, a Cavalier
or Malignant, and a scoffer, who hath no inheritance in Jesse;
nevertheless, we are commanded to do justice unto all, and to fulfil
our bond and covenant, as well to the stranger as to him who is in
brotherhood with us.
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