"Because, up to this time, you seem to have managed to soften her heart a little."
"I have tried to. I have thought myself justified in playing a part—as King David once did you know."
"It is that which brings me here. I met her at the house of a friend whom I called to see on some business a day or two ago."
"Ah!"
"She said to me, in that soft purring voice of hers, 'Brother Joseph, I hear that your good friend Master Raymond is still in Boston.' I answered that I believed he was. 'When he took leave of me,' she continued, 'I advised him not to stay long in that town—as it was often a bad climate for strangers. I am sorry he does not take wise counsel.' Then she passed on, and out of the house. Have you any idea what she meant?"
Master Raymond studied a moment over it in silence. Then he said:—"It is the first warning of the rattlesnake, I suppose. How many do they usually give before they spring?"
"Three, the saying goes. But I guess this rattlesnake cannot be trusted to give more than one."
"I was convinced I saw your brother Thomas as I came ashore from the Storm King the other day."
"Ah, that explains it then. She understands it all then. She understands it all now just as well as if you had told her."
"But why should she pursue so fiendishly an innocent girl like Dulcibel, who is not conscious of ever having offended her?"