`` Here is our pleasant meeting come to pass , '' said the aged crone , `` according as thou hast desired . Say quickly what thou wouldst have of me , for there is but a short hour that we may tarry here . '' As the old withered woman spoke a smile glimmered on her countenance like lamplight on the wall of a sepulchre . The lady trembled and cast her eyes upward to the verge of the basin , as if meditating to return with her purpose unaccomplished . But it was not so ordained . `` I am stranger in this land , as you know , '' said she , at length . `` Whence I come it matters not , but I have left those behind me with whom my fate was intimately bound , and from whom I am cut off for ever . There is a weight in my bosom that I can not away with , and I have come hither to inquire of their welfare . '' `` And who is there by this green pool that can bring thee news from the ends of the earth ? '' cried the old woman , peering into the lady 's face . `` Not from my lips mayst thou hear these tidings ; yet be thou bold , and the daylight shall not pass away from yonder hilltop before thy wish be granted . '' `` I will do your bidding though I die , '' replied the lady , desperately . The old woman seated herself on the trunk of the fallen tree , threw aside the hood that shrouded her gray locks and beckoned her companion to draw near . `` Kneel down , '' she said , `` and lay your forehead on my knees . '' She hesitated a moment , but the anxiety that had long been kindling burned fiercely up within her . As she knelt down the border of her garment was dipped into the pool ; she laid her forehead on the old woman 's knees , and the latter drew a cloak about the lady 's face , so that she was in darkness . Then she heard the muttered words of prayer , in the midst of which she started and would have arisen . `` Let me flee ! Let me flee and hide myself , that they may not look upon me ! '' she cried .
But , with returning recollection , she hushed herself and was still as death , XXXXX it seemed as if other voices , familiar in infancy and unforgotten through many wanderings and in all the vicissitudes of her heart and fortune , were mingling with the accents of the prayer .
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