she mane, Sarah? I tell you,
wanst for all, you must give up ringing Providence into my ears, unless
you wish to bring my hand upon you, as you often did! mark that!"

"Your ears," she replied, looking at him calmly, and without seeming to
regard his threat; "oh, I only wish I could ring the fear of Providence
into your heart--I wish I I could; I'll do for yourself what you often
pretend to do for others: but I'll give you warnin'. I tell you now,
that Providence: himself is on your track--that his judgment's hangin'
over you--and that it'll fall upon! you before long. This is my
prophecy, and; a black one you'll soon find it."

That Nelly had been always a woman of some good nature, with gleams of
feeling and humanity appearing in a character otherwise apathetic, hard,
and dark, M'Gowan well knew; but that she was capable of bearding him
in one of his worst and most ferocious moods, was a circumstance which
amazed and absolutely overcame him. Whether it was the novelty or the
moral elevation of the position she so unexpectedly assumed, or some
lurking conviction within himself which echoed back the truth of her
language, it is difficult to say. Be that, however, as it might, he
absolutely quailed before her; and instead of giving way to headlong
violence or outrage, he sat down, and merely looked on her in silence
and amazement.

Sarah thought he was unnecessarily tame on the occasion, and that
her prophecy ought not to have been listened to in silence. The utter
absence of all fear, however, on the part of the elder female, joined to
the extraordinary union of determination and indifference with which
she spoke, had something morally impressive in it; and Sarah, who
felt, besides, that there seemed a kind of mystery in the words of the
denunciation, resolved to let the matter rest between them, at least for
the present.

A silence of some time now ensued, during which she looked from the one
to the other with an aspect of uncertainty. At length, she burst into a
hearty laugh--

"Ha, ha, ha!--well," said she, "it's a good joke at any rate to see my
father bate with his own weapons. Why, she has frightened you more wid
her prophecy than ever you did any one wid one of your own. Ha, ha, ha!"

To this Sally neither replied, nor seemed disposed to reply.

"Here," added Sarah, handing her stepmother a cloth, "remimber you have
to go to Darby Skinadre's for meal. I'd go myself, an' save you in the
journey, but that I