140
WYLDER'S HAJVD.
blame me. Remember I am neither well nor happy, and
forgive what you cannot like in me. I have very few to
love me now, and I thought you might love me, as I have
begun to love you. Oh! Dorcas, darling, don't forsake
me; I am very lonely here, and my spirits are gone, and
I never needed kindness so much before."
And she threw her arms round her cousin's neck, and
brave Rachel at last burst into tears.
Dorcas, in her strange way, was moved.
"I like you still, Rachel; I'm sure I'll always like
you. You resemble me, Rachel: you are fearless and
inflexible and generous. That spirit belongs to the blood
of our strange race: all our women were so. Yes, Ra-
chel, I do love you. I was wounded to find you had
thoughts you would not trust to me; but I have made the
promise, and I'll keep it; and I love you all the same."
'' Thank you, Dorcas, dear. I like to call you cous-
in — kindred is so pleasant. Thank you, from my heart,
for your love; you will never know, perhaps, how much
it is to me."
The young queen looked on her kindly, but sadly,
through her large, strange eyes, clouded with a pressage
of futurity, and she kissed her again, and said —
"Rachel, dear, I have a plan for you and me: we
shall be old maids, you and I, and live together like the
ladies of Llangollen, careless and happy recluses. I'll
let Brandon and abdicate. We will make a little tour
together, when all this shall have blown over, in a few
weeks, and choose our retreat; and with the winter's
snow we'll vanish from Brandon, and appear with the
early flowers at our cottage among the beautiful woods
and hills of Wales. Will you come, Rachel?"
At sight of this castle or cottage in the air, Rachel
lighted up. The little whim had something tranquilizmg