nd heir of the Fitzgeralds of Kildoon, and added--something
of my old lawyer spirit returning into me for the moment--that I had no
doubt but that we should prove Lucy to be by right possessed of large
estates in Ireland.

No flush came over her grey face; no light into her eyes. 'And what is
all the wealth in the whole world to that poor girl?' she said. 'It
will not free her from the ghastly bewitchment which persecutes her. As
for money, what a pitiful thing it is; it cannot touch her.'

'No more can the Evil Creature harm her,' I said. 'Her holy nature
dwells apart, and cannot be defiled or stained by all the devilish arts
in the whole world.'

'True! but it is a cruel fate to know that all shrink from her, sooner
or later, as from one possessed--accursed.'

'How came it to pass?' I asked.

'Nay, I know not. Old rumours there are, that were bruited through the
household at Skipford.'

'Tell me,' I demanded.

'They came from servants, who would fain account for everything. They
say that, many years ago, Mr. Gisborne killed a dog belonging to an old
witch at Coldholme; that she cursed, with a dreadful and mysterious
curse, the creature, whatever it might be, that he should love best;
and that it struck so deeply into his heart that for years he kept
himself aloof from any temptation to love aught. But who could help
loving Lucy?'

'You never heard the witch's name?' I gasped.

'Yes--they called her Bridget; they said he would never go near the
spot again for terror of her. Yet he was a brave man!'

'Listen,' said I, taking hold of her arm, the better to arrest her full
attention; 'if what I suspect holds true, that man stole Bridget's only
child--the very Mary Fitzgerald who was Lucy's mother; if so, Bridget
cursed him in ignorance of the deeper wrong he had done her. To this
hour she yearns after her lost child, and questions the saints whether
she be living or not. The roots of that curse lie deeper than she
knows: she unwittingly banned him for a deeper guilt than that of
killing a dumb beast. The sins of the fathers are indeed visited upon
the children.'

'But,' said Mistress Clarke, eagerly, 'she would never let evil rest on
her own grandchild? Surely, sir, if what you say be true, there are
hopes for Lucy. Let us go--go at once, and tell this fearful woman all
that you suspect, and beseech her to take off the spell she has put
upon her innocent grandchild.'

It seemed to me, indeed, that somethin