How does the author use foreshadowing in Giants in the Earth?

In Part II, Chapter II, Beret is immediately drawn to the crazed woman they come upon in the lone wagon. Like the Hansas, they have been separated from the rest of their caravan. Beret empathizes with the woman not because they are lost, but rather because she has lost a child and is in a state of utter loss and confusion. Beret sees her own pain and suffering reflected in the woman's eyes. The reader may realize that Beret is only steps away from becoming the mad woman chained inside the wagon, and perhaps, this is what causes her to reach out so tenderly. The women are one in the same. The reader may wonder if the couple's appearance is a foreshadowing of Beret's downward spiral.