lating his curiosity under pretence of
putting him off. He began to fret with suspicion and curiosity, and
insisted on her speaking out.

"Ah! but I am so afraid you will hate me," said she; "and that will be
worse than losing my place."

Griffith stamped on the ground. "What is it?" said he, fiercely.

Ryder seemed frightened. "It is nothing," said she. Then she paused, and
added, "but my folly. I can't bear to see you waste your feelings. She
is not so ill as you fancy."

"Do you mean to say that my wife is pretending?"

"How can I say that? I wasn't there: _nobody saw her fall_; nor _heard
her either_; and the house full of people. No doubt there is something
the matter with her; but I do believe her heart is in more trouble than
her back."

"And what troubles her heart? Tell me, and she shall not fret long."

"Well, sir; then just you send for Father Leonard; and she will get up,
and walk as she used, and smile on you as she used. That man is the
main of her sickness, you take my word."

Griffith turned sick at heart; and the strong man literally staggered at
this envenomed thrust of a weak woman's tongue. But he struggled with
the poison.

"What d' ye mean, woman?" said he. "The priest hasn't been near her
these two months."

"That is it, sir," replied Ryder quietly; "_he_ is too wise to come here
against your will; and _she_ is bitter against you for frightening him
away. Ask yourself, sir, didn't she change to you the moment that you
threatened that Leonard with the horse-pond?"

"That is true!" gasped the wretched husband.

Yet he struggled again. "But she made it up with me after that. Why, 't
was but the other day she begged me to go abroad with her, and take her
away from this place."

"Ay? indeed!" said Ryder, bending her black brows, "did she so?"

"That she did," said Griffith joyfully; "so you see you are mistaken."

"You should have taken her at her word, sir," was all the woman's reply.

"Well, you see the hay was out; so I put it off; and then came the
cursed rain, day after day; and so she cooled upon it."

"Of course she did, sir." Then, with a solemnity that appalled her
miserable listener, "I'd give all I'm worth if you had taken her at her
word that minute. But that is the way with you gentlemen; you let the
occasion slip; and we that be women never forgive that: she won't give
you the same chance again, _I_ know. Now if I was not afraid to make you
unhappy, I'd tell you why s