Then slowly arose from the rushes by the waterside the same grotesque figure which had once before held converse with Ophelia. The red cloak, the umbrella, the poke bonnet, the keen eye, were all there, and the old woman stood upon the bank within a very short distance of the sacks.
She looked round upon the people as if rather surprised at seeing them there, but appeared after a short time to have eyes only for Ophelia, upon whom she fixed her gaze attentively, and striking her umbrella upon the ground accosted her in the following words:
"What is it, Ophelia! and what do you fear
That you've called your affectionate godmother here?
Have matters gone wrong since you wanted me last?
I fear that they have, as my eyes round I cast—
You haven't got on the same dress that you wore
When you came down to see the old lady before—
And unless my old eyesight its certainty lacks
You seem hampered and bound in the coarsest of sacks,