favour of her mistress, from
whom indeed she was seldom separate, Fenella was by no means a favourite
with the rest of the household. In fact, it seemed that her temper,
exasperated perhaps by a sense of her misfortune, was by no means equal
to her abilities. She was very haughty in her demeanour, even towards
the upper domestics, who in that establishment were of a much higher
rank and better birth than in the families of the nobility in general.
These often complained, not only of her pride and reserve, but of her
high and irascible temper and vindictive disposition. Her passionate
propensity had been indeed idly encouraged by the young men, and
particularly by the Earl, who sometimes amused himself with teasing her,
that he might enjoy the various singular motions and murmurs by which
she expressed her resentment. Towards him, these were of course only
petulant and whimsical indications of pettish anger. But when she was
angry with others of inferior degree--before whom she did not control
herself--the expression of her passion, unable to display itself in
language, had something even frightful, so singular were the tones,
contortions, and gestures, to which she had recourse. The lower
domestics, to whom she was liberal almost beyond her apparent means,
observed her with much deference and respect, but much more from fear
than from any real attachment; for the caprices of her temper displayed
themselves even in her gifts; and those who most frequently shared her
bounty, seemed by no means assured of the benevolence of the motives
which dictated her liberality.

All these peculiarities led to a conclusion consonant with Manx
superstition. Devout believers in all the legends of fairies so dear to
the Celtic tribes, the Manx people held it for certainty that the elves
were in the habit of carrying off mortal children before baptism, and
leaving in the cradle of the new born babe one of their own brood, which
was almost always imperfect in some one or other of the organs proper to
humanity. Such a being they conceived Fenella to be; and the smallness
of her size, her dark complexion, her long locks of silken hair, the
singularity of her manners and tones, as well as the caprices of her
temper, were to their thinking all attributes of the irritable, fickle,
and dangerous race from which they supposed her to be sprung. And it
seemed, that although no jest appeared to offend her more than when Lord
Derby called her in sport