ented to marry Harry she will marry him, and that is all
that is to be said about it."

"I thought she would," said Harry; "I told you, Charley, that I didn't
think I was a fool--didn't I?"

"I know you did, Harry," replied his brother; "but I don't know how--it
strikes me that I would rather have any other man's opinion on that
subject than your own; however, time will tell."

"It will tell, of course; and if it proves me a fool, I will give
you leave to clap the fool's cap on me for life. And now that we
have advanced so far and so well, I may go and take one of my evening
strolls, in order to meditate on my approaching happiness." And he did
so.

The family were not at all surprised at this, even although the period
of his walks frequently extended into a protracted hour of the night.
Not so the servants, who wondered why Master Harry should walk so much
abroad and remain out so late at night, especially considering the
unsettled and alarming state of the country, in consequence of the
outrages and robberies which were of such frequent occurrence. This,
it is true, was startling enough to these simple people; but that which
filled them not only with astonishment, but with something like awe,
was the indifference with which he was known to traverse haunted places
alone and unaccompanied, when the whole country around, except thieves
and robbers, witches, and evil spirits, were sound asleep. "What," they
asked each other, "could he mean by it?"

"Barney Casey, you that knows a great deal for an unlarned man, tell
us what you think of it," said the cook; "isn't it the world's wondher,
that a man that's out at such hours doesn't see somethin'? There's Lanty
Bawn, and sure they say he saw the _white woman_ beyant the end of the
long _boreen_ on Thursday night last, the Lord save us; eh, Barney?"

Barney immediately assumed the oracle.

"He did," said he; "and what is still more fearful, it's said there was
a black man along wid her. They say that Lanty seen them both, and that
the black man had his arm about the white woman's waist, and was kissin'
her at full trot."

The cook crossed herself, and the whole kitchen turned up its eyes at
this diabolical piece of courtship.

"Musha, the Lord be about us in the manetime; but bad luck to the ould
boy, (a black man is always considered the devil, or the ould boy,
as they call him,) wasn't it a daisant taste he had, to go to kiss a
ghost?"

"Why," replied Barney wi