her design, the strange woman, having again put
the bottle into her bosom, prepared to depart.

She had now once more become calm, and resumed her seat with the languid
air of one who has suffered much exhaustion and excitement. She put
her hand upon her forehead for a few moments, as if collecting her
faculties, or endeavoring to remember the purport of their previous
conversation. A slight moisture had broken through her skin, and
altogether, notwithstanding her avowed criminality in entering into an
unholy bond, she appeared an object of deep compassion.

In a moment her manner changed again, and her eyes blazed out once more,
as she asked her alarmed hostess:--

"Again, Mary Sullivan, will you take the gift that I have it in my power
to give you? ay or no? speak, poor mortal, if you know what is for your
own good?"

Mrs. Sullivan's fears, however, had overcome her love of money,
particularly as she thought that wealth obtained in such a manner could
not prosper; her only objection being to the means of acquiring it.

"Oh!" said the stranger, "am I doomed never to meet with any one who
will take the promise off me by drinking of this bottle? Oh! but I am
unhappy! What it is to fear--ah! ah!--and keep his commandments. Had
I done so in my youthful time, I wouldn't now--ah--merciful mother, is
there no relief? kill me, tormentor; kill me outright, for surely the
pangs of eternity cannot be greater than those you now make me suffer.
Woman," said she, and her muscles stood out in extraordinary energy--
"woman, Mary Sullivan--ay, if you should kill me--blast me--where I
stand, I will say the word--woman--you have daughters--teach them--to
fear-"

Having got so far, she stopped--her bosom heaved up and down--her frame
shook dreadfully--her eyeballs became lurid and fiery--her hands were
clenched, and the spasmodic throes of inward convulsion worked the white
froth up to her mouth; at length she suddenly became like a statue, with
this wild, supernatural expression intense upon her, and with an awful
calmness, by far more dreadful than excitement could be, concluded by
pronouncing, in deep, husky tones, the name of God.

Having accomplished this with such a powerful struggle, she turned
round, with pale despair in her countenance and manner, and with
streaming eyes slowly departed, leaving Mrs. Sullivan in a situation not
at all to be envied.

In a short time the other members of the family, who had been out
at th