d to his
own safety; but how, or in what manner, he could not conjecture. It is
certainly true some misgivings shot lightly across his imagination,
on reflecting that he had parted with the very weapon which he usually
brought with him to repel the violence of Ellen's friends, should he be
detected in an interview with her. He remembered, too, that he had
met unlucky Nell M'Collum, and that the person who deprived him of his
principal means of defence was her niece. He had little time, however,
to think upon the subject, for in a few minutes after Nanse's departure,
he recognized the light quick step of her whom he expected.

The figure of Ellen Neil was tall, and her motions full of untaught
elegance and natural grace. Her countenance was a fine oval; her
features, though not strictly symmetrical, were replete with animation,
and her eyes sparkled with a brilliancy indicative of a warm heart and a
quick apprehension. Flaxen hair, long and luxuriant, decided, even at a
distant glance, the loveliness of her skin, than which the unsunned snow
could not be whiter. If you add to this a delightful temper, buoyant
spirits, and extreme candor, her character, in its strongest points, is
before you.

On reaching the bottom of the Grassy Quarry, as it was called, she
peered under the little beetling cliff that overhung the well-known
ledge on which Lamh Laudher sat.

"I declare, John," said she, on seeing him, "I thought at first you
weren't here."

"Did you ever know me to be late!--" said John, taking her by the hand,
and placing her beside him; "and what would you a' done, Ellen, if I
hadn't been here?"

"Why, run home as if the life was lavin' me, for fear of seein'
something."

"You needn't be afeard, Ellen, dear; nothing could harm you, at all
events. However, puttin' that aside, have you any betther tidin's than
you had when we met last?"

"I wish to heaven I had, John! but indeed I have far worse; ay, a
thousand times worse. They have all joined against me, an' I'm not to
see or speak to you at all."

"That's hard," replied Lamh Laudher, drawing his breath tightly; "but
I know where it comes from. I think your father might be softened a
little, ay, a great deal, if it wasn't for your brother Meehaul."

"Indeed, Lamh Laudher, you're wrong in that; my father's as bitther
against you as he is. It was only on Tuesday evenin' last that they told
me, one an' all they would rather see me a corpse than your wife. Inde