Then Betsy approached the bed, and fell down on her knees before me.
'Mistress,' she said imploringly, 'promise me that you will not interfere with witches and such like again. It is that which gives the Evil One power over you, and makes you take rank with his creatures——'
'Fie upon you, Betsy!' I exclaimed indignantly. 'I know what you are thinking. In your naughty thoughts you are limiting the power of our Heavenly Father to take care of me His child, and you are believing that Satan is as mighty, or mightier than He.' Then, as she was silent, I went on, 'Don't you remember that Master Montgomery used to say, "There are no people common or unclean now, since the Gentiles are called to salvation, and our Heavenly Father cares for us all with the utmost tenderness." You know, Betsy, even those poor old women you despised were His dear children. And Master Montgomery said, too, which indeed we know well, that, strong though Satan may be, there is One who is stronger than he.'
Betsy was silenced then. She arose, wiped her eyes and turned meekly away to her work, and I saw it was better to instruct and teach her right notions than to be so contemptuous as at first I was in heart, and told myself I must remember that Master Montgomery said, 'A Christian should always be gentle and "apt to teach."'
Scarcely had I settled that in my mind, when the door opened to admit Lady Caroline Wood, who approached me with great kindness, asking how I had slept and if I were recovered from my fatigue.
When I had answered that my night's sleep was good and my health as well as usual, she asked if my woman might withdraw as she wished to converse with me in private.
'Certainly,' I replied, a little wonderingly, and then I bade Betsy leave the room; and Lady Caroline, who was not much older than myself—though by wearing a large head-dress and elaborate garments she looked so—sat down on the edge of my bed, and talked long with me.
'I have heard,' she began—'Sir Hubert has told us—what a brave girl you were yesterday in withstanding alone, with your few servants, the cruelties a crowd of men and boys were practising on two old women. It was noble of you, Mistress Margaret, and I honour you for it with all my heart.'
Thereupon she took up my right hand and pressed it for a moment to her lips.
'You are a heroine,' she said, 'and I admire and love you.'