al beauty and
angelic purity--turned deadly pale when her father spoke.

"Bridget," Sullivan said, turning to his wife, "I tell you that I came
upon that undutiful daughter of ours coortin' wid the son of the man
that murdhered her uncle, my only brother--coortin' wid a fellow that
Dan M'Gowan here knows will be hanged yet, for he's jist afther tellin'
him so."

"You're ravin', Jerry," exclaimed his wife. "You don't mean to tell me
that she'd spake to, or make any freedoms whatsomever wid young Condy
Dalton? Hut, no, Jerry; don't say that, at all events!"

But Sullivan's indignation passed quickly to alarm and distress, for his
daughter tottered, and would have fallen to the ground if Donnel had not
caught her.

"Save me from that man!" she shrieked at Donnel, clinging to her mother.
"Don't let him near me! I can't tell why, but I am deadly afraid of
him!"

Her parents, already sorry for their harsh words, tried their utmost to
console her.

"Don't be alarmed, my purty creature," said the Black Prophet softly. "I
see a great good fortune before you. I see a grand and handsome husband,
and a fine house to live in. Grandeur and wealth is before her, for her
beauty an' her goodness will bring it all about."

When the family, after the father had offered up a few simple prayers,
retired to rest, Sullivan took down his brother's old great coat, and
placed it over M'Gowan, who was already in bed. But the latter
immediately sat up and implored him to take it away.

Next morning before departing, Donnel repeated to Mave Sullivan his
prophecy of the happy and prosperous marriage.

But Mave, who knew where her affection rested, found no comfort in these
predictions, for the Daltons were pressed as hard by poverty as their
neighbours.

As for Donnel M'Gowan, cunning and unscrupulous, his plan was to secure
Mave for young Dick o' the Grange, a small landowner, and a profligate.
To do this he relied on the help of his daughter Sarah and was
disappointed. For Sarah was to find Mave Sullivan her friend, and she
renounced her father's scheme, so that no harm happened to the girl.

_III.--The Shadow of Crime_

With famine came typhus fever, and the state of the country was
frightful beyond belief. Thousands were reduced to mendicancy, numbers
perished on the very highways, and the road was literally black with
funerals. Temporary sheds were erected near the roadsides, containing
fever-stricken patients who had no oth