m their leader. As for anything
else I have done, I do not look upon it as a crime; let it rest upon the
oppression that drove me and others to the wild lives we lead. We are
forced to live now the best way we can, and that you know; but as to
this gentleman, you mustn't spake to him at any rate," he proceeded;
"why should you? What 'ud make a man so high in life, and so far above
you as he is, strive to become acquainted with you, unless to bring
about your ruin to gratify his own bad passions? Think of it, and bring
it home to your heart. You have too many examples before your eyes,
young as you are, of silly girls that allow themselves to be made fools
of, and desaved and ruined by such scoundrels as this. Look at that
unfortunate girl in the mountains there--Nannie Morrissey; look at her
father hanged only for takin' God's just revenge, as he had a right to
do, on the villain that brought destruction upon her and his innocent
family, and black shame upon their name that never had a spot upon it
before. After these words you may now act as you like; but remember that
you have got _Shawn-na-Middogue's_ warning, and you ought to know what
that is."

He then started off in the same direction which Woodward had taken, and
Grace, having looked after him with considerable indignation on her own
part and considerable apprehension on behalf of Woodward, took up her
pitcher and proceeded home.

She now felt herself much disturbed, and experienced that state of mind
which is often occasioned by the enunciation of that which is known
to be truth, but which, at the same time, is productive of pain to the
conscience, especially when that conscience begins to abandon the field
and fly from its duty.

Woodward, as he had intended, preferred the open and common road home,
although it was much longer, rather than return by the old green
lane, which was rugged and uneven, and full of deep ruts, dangerous
inequalities, and stumps of old trees, all of which rendered it not only
a disagreeable, but a dangerous, path by night. Having got out upon
the highway, which here, and until he reached near home, was, indeed,
solemn-looking and lonely, not a habitation except the haunted house
being visible for upwards of two miles, he proceeded on his way,
thinking of his interview with Grace Davoren. The country on each side
of him was nearly a desert; a gray ruin, some of whose standing and
isolated fragments assumed, to the excited imaginatio