o at home; but if I could go out and work by the day, I'd do it an' be
happy, in ordher to help the--that---family that's now brought so low,
and that's so much to be pitied!"

We have already said that the Prophet's eye had been bent upon her ever
since he came into the house, but it was with an expression of benignity
and affection which, notwithstanding the gloomy character of his
countenance, no one could more plausibly or willingly assume.

Mave, in the mean time, could scarcely bear to look upon him; and it was
quite clear from her manner that she had, since their last mysterious
interview, once more fallen back into those feelings of strong aversion
with which she had regarded him at first. M'Gowan saw this, and without
much difficulty guessed at the individual who had been instrumental in
producing the change.

"God pardon an' forgive me," he exclaimed, as if giving unconscious
utterance to his I own reflections--"for what I had thoughts of about
that darlin' an' lovely girl; but sure I'll make it up to her; an',
indeed, I feel the words of goodness that's to befall her breakin' out
o' my lips. _A colleen dhas_, I had some private discoorse wid you
when I was here last, an' will you let me spake a few words to you by
ourselves agin?"

"No," she replied, "I'll hear nothing from you: I don't like you--I
can't like you, an' I I'll hold no private discoorse with you."

"Oh, then, but that voice is music itself, an' you are, by all accounts,
the best of girls; I but sure we have all turned over a new leaf, poor
child. I discovered how I was taken in an' dasaved; but sure I can't ait
you--an' a sweet morsel you'd be, _a lanna dhas_--nor' can I run away
wid you--an' I seen the day that it's not my heart would hinder me to
do that same. Oh, my goodness, what a head o' hair! an' talkin' about
that--you undherstand--I'd like to have a word or two wid yourself.'

"Say whatever you have to say before my father and mother, then," she
replied; "I have no--" she paused a moment and seemed embarrassed. The
Prophet, who skilfully threw in the allusion to her hair, guessed the
words she was on the point of uttering, and availing' himself of her
difficulty, seemed to act as if she had completed what she was about to
say.

"I know, dear," he added, "you have no saicrets from them: I'm glad to
hear it, an' for that raison I'm willin' to say what I had to say in
their presence; so far as I'm concerned, it makes no difference."