ALL that night I thought of the dead child and of the peculiar vision which had come tome. Sleeping or waking it was all the same; my mind could not leave the parents inprocession as seen in imagination, or their distracted mien in reality. Mingled with themwas the great-eyed, aquiline-featured, gaunt old woman who had taken such an interest inthe affair, and in my part of it. I asked the landlord if he knew her, since, from his positionas postmaster he knew almost everyone for miles around. He told me that she was ...
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ALL that night I thought of the dead child and of the peculiar vision which had come tome. Sleeping or waking it was all the same; my mind could not leave the parents inprocession as seen in imagination, or their distracted mien in reality. Mingled with themwas the great-eyed, aquiline-featured, gaunt old woman who had taken such an interest inthe affair, and in my part of it. I asked the landlord if he knew her, since, from his positionas postmaster he knew almost everyone for miles around. He told me that she was astranger to the place. Then he added: "I can't imagine what brings her here. She has come over from Peterhead two or threetimes lately; but she doesn't seem to have anything at all to do. She has nothing to sell andshe buys nothing. She's not a tripper, and she's not a beggar, and she's not a thief, and she'snot a worker of any sort. She's a queer-looking lot anyhow. I fancy from her speech thatshe's from the west; probably from some of the far-out islands. I can tell that she has theGaelic from the way she speaks."Later on in the day, when I was walking on the shore near the Hawklaw, she came up tospeak to me. The shore was quite lonely, for in those days it was rare to see anyone on thebeach except when the salmon fishers drew their nets at the ebbing tide. I was walkingtowards Whinnyfold when she came upon me silently from behind. She must have beenhidden among the bent-grass of the sandhills for had she been anywhere in view I musthave seen her on that desolate shore. She was evidently a most imperious person; she atonce addressed me in a tone and manner which made me feel as though I were in someway an inferior, and in somehow to blame: "What for did ye no tell me what ye saw yesterday?" Instinctively I answered: "I don't know why. Perhaps because it seemed so ridiculous." Her stern featureshardened into scorn as she replied: "Are Death and the Doom then so redeekulous that they pleasure ye intil silence?" Isomehow felt that this was a little too much and was about to make a sharp answer, whensuddenly it struck me as a remarkable thing that she knew already. Filled with surprise Istraightway asked her: "Why, how on earth do you know? I told no one." I stopped for I felt all at sea; there wassome mystery here which I could not fathom. She seemed to read my mind like an openbook, for she went on looking at me as she spoke, searchingly and with an odd smile."Eh! laddie, do ye no ken that ye hae een that can see? Do ye no understand that ye haeeen that can speak? Is it that one with the Gift o' Second Sight has no an understandin' o' it.Why, yer face when ye saw the mark o' the Doom, was like a printed book to een like mine.""Do you mean to tell me" I asked "that you could tell what I saw, simply by looking at myface?"
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