re, under the priest's care, had been tended with infinite
solicitude; but almost with a hope on his part that nature might give
way and that she might die. Overwhelmed as she was with sorrows past and
to come would it not be better for her that she should go hence and be
no more seen? But as Death cannot be barred from the door when he knocks
at it, so neither can he be made to come as a guest when summoned. She
still lived, though life had so little to offer to her.

But Mrs. O'Hara never saw her child again. With passionate entreaties
she begged of the police that her girl might be brought to her, that she
might be allowed if it were only to see her face or to touch her hand.
Her entreaties to the priest, who was constant in his attendance upon
her in the prison to which she was removed from his house, were
piteous,--almost heartbreaking. But the poor girl, though she was meek,
silent, and almost apathetic in her tranquillity, could not even bear
the mention of her mother's name. Her mother had destroyed the father of
the child that was to be born to her, her lover, her hero, her god; and
in her remembrance of the man who had betrayed her, she learned to
execrate the mother who had sacrificed everything,--her very reason,--in
avenging the wrongs of her child!

Mrs. O'Hara was taken away from the priest's house to the County Gaol,
but was then in a condition of acknowledged insanity. That she had
committed the murder no one who heard the story doubted, but of her
guilt there was no evidence whatever beyond the random confession of a
maniac. No detailed confession was ever made by her. "An eye for an
eye," she would say when interrogated,--"Is not that justice? A tooth
for a tooth!" Though she was for a while detained in prison it was
impossible to prosecute her,--even with a view to an acquittal on the
ground of insanity; and while the question was under discussion among
the lawyers, provision for her care and maintenance came from another
source.

As also it did for the poor girl. For a while everything was done for
her under the care of Father Marty;--but there was another Earl of
Scroope in the world, and as soon as the story was known to him and the
circumstances had been made clear, he came forward to offer on behalf of
the family whatever assistance might now avail them anything. As months
rolled on the time of Kate O'Hara's further probation came, but Fate
spared her the burden and despair of a living infant.