Page:Salem - a tale of the seventeenth century (IA taleseventeenth00derbrich).pdf/155

 her friends, it would seem to intimate that the painful visit they were to make was undertaken in a friendly spirit, and was intended to warn the unsuspecting woman of the peril in which she stood, and very possibly they may have hoped that she would take the alarm and save herself by flight.

Entering the grounds, now all bright and smiling in the new promise of their spring beauty, the anxious friends reached the house, which was then regarded as a spacious and elegant one; it had once been the abode of some of the choicest and best spirits in New England—here Bishop had spent his wealth to beautify the spot, and here he and Chickering and Ingersoll had exercised the rites of liberal and elegant hospitality; and now it was the happy home of an honest and prosperous family.

Entering, they found the venerable and unsuspecting hostess in her usual place. She welcomed them gladly, with all her wonted friendly hospitality; although, as she told them in answer to their inquiry, in a rather weak and low condition, having been sick and confined to the house for nearly a week.