she ate. This, however, she did, not by stealth, but openly;
merely taking means to prevent the concealed thing, from being, by any
possible accident discovered.

When the craving of hunger was satisfied, she appeared to suffer less
from the persecution of her tormentor than, before; whether it was, as
Mrs. Sullivan thought, that the food with which she plied it, appeased
in some degree its irritability, or lessened that of the stranger, it
was difficult to say; at all events, she became more composed; her eyes
resumed somewhat of a natural expression; each sharp ferocious glare,
which shot, from them! with such intense and rapid flashes, partially
disappeared; her knit brows dilated, and part of a forehead, which had
once been capacious and handsome, lost the contractions which deformed
it by deep wrinkles. Altogether the change was evident, and very-much
relieved Mrs. Sullivan, who could not avoid observing it.

"It's not that I care much about it, if you'd think it not right o' me,
but it's odd enough for you to keep the lower part of your face muffled
up in that black cloth, an' then your forehead, too, is covered down on
your face a bit? If they're part of the bargain,"--and she shuddered at
the thought--"between you an' anything that's not good--hem!--I think
you'd do well to throw thim off o' you, an' turn to thim that can
protect you from everything that's bad. Now a scapular would keep all
the divils in hell from one; an' if you'd"--

On looking at the stranger she hesitated, for the wild expression of her
eyes began to return.

"Don't begin my punishment again," replied the woman; "make no
allus--don't make mention in my presence of anything that's good.
Husht,--husht,--it's beginning--easy now--easy! No," said she, "I came
to tell you, that only for my breakin' a vow I made to this thing upon
me, I'd be happy instead of miserable with it. I say, it's a good thing
to have, if the person will use this bottle," she added, producing one,
"as I will direct them."

"I wouldn't wish, for my part," replied Mrs. Sullivan, "to have anything
to do wid it--neither act nor part;" and she crossed herself devoutly,
on contemplating such an unholy alliance as that at which her companion
hinted.

"Mary Sullivan," replied the other, "I can put good fortune and
happiness in the way of you and yours. It is for you the good is
intended; if you don't get both, no other can," and her eyes kindled as
she spoke, like those of