“Leave me to my resources,” said he, “and it will go hard or I will so manage Charles as to disentangle him from the consequences of her influence over him.  But the families, mother, must not be for the present permitted to visit again.  On the contrary, it is better for our purposes that they should not see each other as formerly, nor resume their intimacy.  If you suffer your passions to overcome you, even in our own family, the consequence is that you prevent us both from playing our game as we ought, and as we shall do.  Leave Charles to me; I shall make O’Connor of use, too; but above all things do not breathe a syllable to any one of them of my having been thrown off.  I think, as it is, I have damped her ardor for him a little, and if she had not been obstinate and foolishly romantic, I would have extinguished it completely.  As it is, I told her to leave the truth of what I mentioned to her respecting him, to time, and if she does I shall rest satisfied.  Will you now be guided by me, my dear mother?”

“I will endeavor to do so,” she replied; “but it will be a terrible restraint upon me, and I scarcely know how I shall be able to keep myself calm.  I will try, however; the object is worth it.  You know if she dies without issue the property reverts to you.”

“Yes, mother, the object is worth much more than the paltry sacrifice I ask of you.  Keep yourself quiet, then, and we will accomplish our purposes yet.  I shall set instruments to work who will ripen our projects, and, I trust, ultimately accomplish them.”

“Why, what instruments do you intend to use?”

“I know the girl’s disposition and character well.  I have learned much concerning her from Casey, who is often there as a suitor for the fair hand of her favorite maid.  Casey, however, is a man in whom I can place no confidence; he is too much attached to the rest of the family, and does not at all relish me.  I will make him an unconscious agent of mine, notwithstanding.  In the meantime, let nothing appear in your manner that might induce them to suspect the present position of affairs between us.  They may come to know it soon enough, and then it will be our business to act with greater energy and decision.”

And so it was arranged between this precious mother and son.

Woodward who was quick in the conception of his projects, had them all laid even then; and in order to work them out with due effect, he resolved to pay a visit to our friend, Sol Donnel, the herb doctor.  This hypocritical old villain was uncle to Caterine Collins, the fortune-teller, who had prognosticated to him such agreeable tiding’s on the night of the bonfire.  She, too, was to be made useful, and, so far as money could do it, faithful to his designs—­diabolical as they were.  He accordingly went one night, about the hour mentioned by Donnel, to the cabin of that worthy man; and knocking gently at the door, was replied to in a peevish voice, like that of an individual who had been interrupted in the performance of some act of piety and devotion.