has a quare story, yer Riverince,' she cried out panting,
'about a girl's come visitin' ould Margret in the glen, an' wid a
thrunk as big as a house. Him an' little Martin was kilt draggin' it
up the hill.'

His Reverence waved away her excitement gently.

'I know all about it,' he said. 'Indeed I've been the means in a way
of restoring Margret's daughter to her. You never knew your
sister-in-law was married, Mrs. Laffan? An odd woman to drop her
married name. We must call her by it in future. Mrs. Conneely is the
name.'

But Mrs. Jack, with an emotion which even the presence of his
Reverence could not quell, let what the neighbours described
afterwards as a 'screech out of her fit to wake the dead,' and fled
into her house, where on her bed she had an attack which came as near
being hysterical as the strong-minded woman could compass. She only
recovered when Mrs. Devine and Mrs. Cahill and the widow Mulvany,
running in, proposed to drench her with cold water, when her heels
suddenly left off drumming and she stood up, very determinedly, and
bade them be off about their own business. She always spoke afterwards
of Margret as the robber of the widow and orphan, which was satisfying
if not quite appropriate.

We all heard afterwards how Margret had married on the mainland, and
after this girl was born had had an attack of mania, for which she was
placed in the county asylum. In time she was declared cured, and it
was arranged that her husband should come for her on a certain day and
remove her; but Margret, having had enough of marriage and its
responsibilities, left the asylum quietly before that day came and
made her way to the Island. She had been well content to be regarded
as a spinster till she felt her health failing, and then she had
entrusted to Father Tiernay her secret, and he had found her daughter
for her.

Margret lived some months after that, and left at the time of her
death thirty pounds to the fortunate heiress. The well-stocked larder
had sufficed the two for quite a long time without any recourse to
'the stocking.' There was very little further friendship between the
village and the Red Glen. Such of the neighbours as were led there at
first by curiosity found the door shut in their faces, for Mary had
Margret's suspiciousness many times intensified. After the Laffan
family had recovered from the first shock of disappointment Fanny made
various approaches to her cousin when she met her at mass