while it manifested sufficient
respect for them, would preclude all hopes of any future intercourse
between them.

Mr. Lindsay did not relish this much; but as he had no particular wish,
in consequence of Charles's illness, to oppose her motives in making the
visit, he said she might manage it as she wished--he would not raise a
fresh breeze about it. He only felt that he was sincerely, sorry for the
loss which the Goodwins were about to experience.

CHAPTER XV. The Banshee.--Disappearance of Grace Davoren.

In the meantime it was certainly an unquestionable fact that Grace
Davoren had disappeared, and not even a trace of her could be found. The
unfortunate girl, alarmed at the tragic incident of that woful night,
and impressed with a belief that Charles Lindsay had been murdered by
Shawn-na-Middogue, had betaken herself to some place of concealment
which no search on behalf of her friends could discover. In fact,
her disappearance was involved in a mystery as deep as the alarm and
distress it occasioned. But what astonished the public most was the fact
that Charles, whose whole life had been untainted by a single act of
impropriety, much less of profligacy, should have been discovered in
such a heartless and unprincipled intrigue with the daughter of one of
his father's tenants, an innocent girl, who, as such, was entitled to
protection rather than injury at his hands.

Whilst this tumult was abroad, and the country was in an unusual state
of alarm and agitation, Harry Woodward took, matters very quietly. That
he seemed to feel deeply for the uncertain and dangerous state of his
brother, who lay suspended, as it were, between life and death, was
evident to every individual of his family. He frequently took Caterine
Collins's place, attended him personally, with singular kindness and
affection, gave him his drinks and decoctions with his own hand; and,
when the surgeon came to make his daily visit, the anxiety he evinced
in ascertaining whether there was any chance of his recovery was most
affectionate and exemplary. Still, as usual, he was out at night; but
the mystery of his whereabouts, while absent, could never be penetrated.
On those occasions he always went armed--a fact which he never attempted
to conceal. On one of these nights it so happened that Barney Casey was
called upon to attend at the wake of a relation, and, as his master's
family were apprised of this circumstance, they did not of course ex