Sometimes, however, her nieces and she visited, and were
always upon good terms; but Agnes's heart had been preoccupied; and even
if it had not, the heartless predictions of her aunt, who entertained
her with the cheering and consoling information that "she had death in
her face," and that "she knew from the high color of her cheek that
she would soon follow her mother," would have naturally estranged
the families. Now, of this apprehension, above all others, it was the
father's wish that Agnes should remain ignorant; and when she repeated
to him, with tears in her eyes, the merciless purport of her aunt's
observations, he replied, with a degree of calm resentment which was
unusual to him, "Agnes, my love, let not anything your aunt may say
alarm you in the least; she is no prophetess, my dear child. Your life,
as is that of all his creatures, is in the hands of God who gave it. I
know her avaricious and acrimonious disposition--her love of wealth, and
her anxiety to aggrandize her family. As it is, she will live to regret
the day she ever uttered those cruel words to you, my child.
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