"
"Then you have come as a kind friend to warn me of my danger?"
"Aye, and more."
"Thanks! thanks! and pardon me if, at the first, I looked with suspicion on
a friend. The circumstances of our meeting is my apology for the ungenerous
thought."
"Thou hadst cause to suspect, if not to fear me, and for thy thought I have
no need to pardon thee. But my mission is not yet completed."
"Then let us go to the house of my father, which is but a short way off,
and there hear what further is to be said."
"No, I have but little time, and this place will answer my purpose quite as
well as your father's house, with the situation of which I am well
acquainted."
"Indeed! Then you are not a stranger in these parts?"
"Not entirely so; but as my business was with you, more particularly, it
was natural that I should familiarize myself with your place of abode,
that, if need be, I might render myself efficient in a case of emergency,
which may arrive but too soon."
This allusion to danger re-awakened Ellen's apprehensions, which noticing,
he continued:
"I have told you of overhanging peril; yet I have told you but half. You
are unable to escape from the net that is woven around you--you have no
means in your power to free yourself from the unseen toils that have been
secretly laid to ensnare you.
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