It was evident that the revolting idea for the first time crossed
her mind, and all the natural feelings of gratified and maiden pride
vanished before the genuine and pure sympathies of a female bosom.
"This cannot be," she at length murmured--"it can never be! Our Ruth
must still remember the lessons taught her in infancy. She knoweth she
is born of Christian lineage! of reputable name! of exalted hope! of
glorious promise!"
"Thou seest by the manner of Whittal, who is of greater age, how little of
that taught, can withstand the wily savage."
"But Whittal faileth of Nature's gifts; he hath ever been below the rest
of men in understanding."
"And yet to what degree of Indian cunning hath he already attained!"
"But Mark," rejoined his companion, timidly, as if, while she felt all its
force, she only consented to urge the argument in tenderness to the
harassed feelings of the brother, "we are of equal years; that which hath
happened to me, may well have been the fortune of our Ruth."
"Dost mean that being unespoused thyself, or that having, at thy years,
inclinations that are free, my sister may have escaped the bitter curse of
being the wife of a Narragansett, or what is not less frightful, the slave
of his humors?"
"Truly, I mean little else than the former.
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