Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland, Volume 14
General
Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland, Volume 14
Scottish Borders (Scotland) -- Fiction
The people in the Abbey discovered that Mary Glenday was entirely
changed. Her cheek became blanched, and her blue eyes dim; while her
general appearance was that of a person labouring under a consumption.
She was seldom seen going out, except to church; and even there she
never looked up. Many questions were put to her, as to the cause of her
dejection, but no satisfactory answers could be got from her. Towards
her father, her kindness continued. It was indeed a kindness altogether
overdone--the result of a wish to heap attentions on him, as if from a
morbid fear that he would not long be preserved to receive or she to
impart them. William Glenday was extremely pained by the change which
had taken place on his daughter. He could not go out without producing
terror in her mind. She was even at times seen following him; and, when
he would turn round and perceive her, she would, as if caught and
ashamed, slip out of his sight. If any person knocked at the door, she
trembled; and if a question was put to her, as to where her father was,
her answer was so confused, that very often the inquirer was obliged to
go away without the information sought. If any one approached the place
where the sword hung, she betrayed uneasiness; and, on one occasion, one
of the grooms under her father having taken down the sword to look at
it, she fainted. She never allowed her father to wear the coat he had on
that night when the murder was committed; and, when he asked for it, she
said she could not find it, although it was carefully secreted in one of
her drawers.
This state of mind in the unhappy girl was not unknown to Giulio
Massetto. He observed her changed appearance, and was well pleased to
hear that there was at present no great likelihood of a union between
her and John Connal. He was observed often to be watching about the door
of the house; and his bold and blustering manner towards John, and his
readiness to speak in his presence about Mary, betrayed a kind of
triumph, mixed with a hope that he might yet succeed where his most
ardent wishes still pointed. He had the boldness, indeed, one day to
make up to her, as she came from church; but she shrank away from him,
and left him in conversation with her father, who still kept on friendly
terms with him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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