he girl was--and
she is the granddaughter of my best friends."

"Sir, ye winna surely fail me!"

"I will help you somehow, but I will not do what you want me. I will
turn the thing over in my mind. I promise you I will do
something--what, I cannot say offhand. You had better go home again,
and I will come to you to-morrow."

"Na, na, that winna do!" said the man, half doggedly, half fiercely.
"The hert ill be oot o' my body gien I dinna du something! This verra
nicht it maun be dune! I canna bide in hell ony langer. The thoucht
o' the rascal slaverin' his lees ower my Eppy 's killin' me! My brain
's like a fire: I see the verra billows o' the ocean as reid 's blude."

"If you come near the castle to-night, I will have you taken up. I am
too much your friend to see you hanged! But if you go home and leave
the matter to me, I will do my best, and let you know. She shall be
saved if I can compass it. What, man! you would not have God against
you?"

"He'll be upo' the side o' the richt, I'm thinkin'!"

"Doubtless; but he has said, 'Vengeance is mine!' He can't trust us
with that. He won't have us interfering. It's more his concern than
yours yet that the lassie have fair play. I will do my part."

They walked on in gloomy silence for some time. Suddenly the fisherman
put out his hand, seized Donal's with a convulsive grasp, was possibly
reassured by the strength with which Donal's responded, turned, and
without a word went back.

Donal had to think. Here was a most untoward affair! What could he
do? What ought he to attempt? From what he had seen of the young
lord, he could not believe he intended wrong to the girl; but he might
he selfishly amusing himself, and was hardly one to reflect that the
least idle familiarity with her was a wrong! The thing, if there was
the least truth in it, must be put a stop to at once! but it might be
all a fancy of the justly jealous lover, to whom the girl had not of
late been behaving as she ought! Or might there not be somebody else?
At the same time there was nothing absurd in the idea that a youth,
fresh from college and suddenly discompanioned at home, without
society, possessed by no love of literature, and with almost no
amusements, should, if only for very ennui, be attracted by the pretty
face and figure of Eppy, and then enthralled by her coquetries of
instinctive response. There was danger to the girl both in silence and
in speech: if there was no