THE WITCH OF SMOKY HOLLO IV 167 
morning. The girl religiously observed these instruc- 
tions. In the morning she unfolded the paper and 
found only these words written : 
' A fickle lover will prove a faithless husband. ' 
' Lightly won is little valued.' 
' That which is always to be seen is little looked for. ' 
Annie had enough woman's wit to understand the 
meaning her friend sought to convey to her ; and she 
asked her father to let her go and pay a visit to some 
relatives at a little distance. 
' Ay, do, lass ; fur mother an' I ha' noticed you 
hain't so peart as you used to be. Have a month on 
it ; ye niver mind fur money, have whativer ye like. 
'Twill all be yours some day, ye knows.' 
Next morning Annie was gone. 
Soon William found that the ladies' ladies grew 
tired of his company ; he had not the refined and 
aristocratic airs of those superb creatures Jeames and 
Henery from Berkeley Square, and, as one of his 
admirers confided to her friend, he was ' gawky, in 
fact, my dear, he is nervous in our society ' ; and it 
then dawned on the young man's slow perceptions 
that he had been a fool. His conscience smote him 
too, for he was good at heart. Dejectedly he made 
his way to the farm and asked for Annie, but learned 
to his dismay that she had gone away. 
