grown taciturn too; she was talkative enough
in the old days when I was a child in the Island, and, often and
often, came clattering in by the half-door to shelter from a shower,
and sat till fine weather on a stool by the turf ashes, gravely
discussing the fishing and the prospects of pigs and young fowl that
season.

There are three sons, but Jim was married and doing for himself before
the trouble befell the family. Tom and Larry were at home, Tom, gentle
and slow-spoken, employed about the Hall gardens. Larry, a fisherman
like his father before him. Both were deeply attached to their young
sister, and had been used to pet and care for her from her cradle.

There is yet a tradition in the island of that terrible time when
Maggie's mother realised the disgrace her daughter had brought on an
honest name. There had been a horrified whisper in the Island for some
time before, a surmise daily growing more certain, an awe-stricken
compassion for the honest people who never suspected the ghastly
shadow about to cross their threshold. People had been slow to accept
this solution of Maggie's pining and weakness. This one had suggested
herb-tea, and that one had offered to accompany Maggie to see the
dispensary doctor who came over from Breagh every Tuesday. But Maggie
accepted none of their offices, only withdrew herself more and more in
a sick horror of herself and life, and roamed about the cliffs where
but the gulls and the little wild Island cattle looked on at her
restless misery.

Her mother was half-fretted and half impatient of her daughter's
ailing. She was a very strong woman herself, and except for a pain in
the side which had troubled her of late, she had never known a day of
megrims. She listened chafing to the neighbours' advice--and every one
of them had their nostrum--and heeded none of them. She had an idea
herself that the girl's sickness was imaginary and could be thrown off
if she willed it. When the neighbours all at once ceased offering her
advice and sympathy she felt it a distinct relief. She had not the
remotest idea that she was become the centre of an awe-stricken
sympathy, that her little world had fallen back and stood gaping at
her and hers as they might at one abnormally stricken: if their
gabble ceased very suddenly and no more idlers came in for a chat by
the fireside she was not the one to fret; she had always plenty to do
without idle women hindering her, and, now the girl had her sick f