Upon this, he made them a low
obeisance, and saying he went to prepare matters to meet their
wish, left the apartment. The two sisters, hand in hand, as if
seeking by that close union to divert any danger which might
threaten them, sat down on two seats in immediate contact with
each other--Jemima seeking support in the manly and habitual
courage of Lady Bothwell; and she, on the other hand, more
agitated than she had expected, endeavouring to fortify herself
by the desperate resolution which circumstances had forced her
sister to assume. The one perhaps said to herself that her
sister never feared anything; and the other might reflect that
what so feeble-minded a woman as Jemima did not fear, could not
properly be a subject of apprehension to a person of firmness and
resolution like her own.
In a few moments the thoughts of both were diverted from their
own situation by a strain of music so singularly sweet and solemn
that, while it seemed calculated to avert or dispel any feeling
unconnected with its harmony, increased, at the same time, the
solemn excitation which the preceding interview was calculated to
produce. The music was that of some instrument with which they
were unacquainted; but circumstances afterwards led my ancestress
to believe that it was that of the harmonica, which she heard at
a much later period in life.
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