"
"I feel I'm responsible for Rachel, and--What ought I to do about it?"
"Do? What can a body do when a respectable young woman wi' red hair
takes a fancy to a youth? Nowt, Elizabeth. That young woman'll marry
Louis Fores, and ye can take it from me."
"But why do you say a thing like that? I only began to notice anything
myself last night."
"She's lost her head over him, that's all. I caught 'em just now....
As thick as thieves in your parlour!"
"But I'm by no means sure that he's smitten with her."
"What does it matter whether he is or not? She's lost her head over
him, and she'll have him. It doesn't want a telescope to see as far as
that."
"Well, then, I shall speak to her--I shall speak to her to-morrow
morning, after she's had a good night's rest, when I feel stronger."
"Ay! Ye may! And what shalt say?"
"I shall warn her. I think I shall know how to do it," said Mrs.
Maldon, with a certain air of confidence amid her trouble. "I wouldn't
run the risk of a tragedy for worlds."
"It's no _risk_ of a tragedy, as ye call it," said Thomas
Batchgrew, very pleased with his own situation in the argument. "It's
a certainty. She'll believe him afore she believes you, whatever ye
say.
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