"Grandmother, you are cruel—cruel! you have no mercy—you have no pity for me! You stab me to the heart, and then ask me for love and gratitude—you have no mercy, none."
As Alice uttered these words, with raised and passionate voice, a slight rustling under the open window attracted Goody Campbell's attention, and fearing they might be overheard, she rose to close the sash; but as she did so, a retreating footstep, and a low, mocking laugh, floated back to her, and convinced her that they had had listeners; but she was too much troubled with the turn affairs had taken to pay much heed to the circumstance. She closed the window, and returning to her usual chair, sat down in ominous silence, her head resting on her hand. And Alice too remained silent, busy with her perplexed and tumultuous thoughts. And so they sat in silence for more than an hour, Goody Campbell absorbed in the past, Alice quite as much absorbed with the future; Alice nervously and restlessly changing her position, while her grandmother never moved.
