“What is it that you think I should know, Caterine?”

Caterine, who looked about her furtively, as if to satisfy herself that there was no one present but themselves, said,—­

“Now, Miss Goodwin, everything depends on whether you’ll answer me one question truly, and you needn’t be afeard to spake the truth to me.”

“Is it concerning myself?”

“It is, Miss Goodwin, and another, too, but principally yourself.”

“But what right have you, Caterine, to question me upon my own affairs?”

“No right, miss; but I wish to prevent you from, harm.”

“I thank you for your good wishes, Caterine; but what is it you would say?”

“Is it true, Miss Alice, that you and Mr. Woodward are coortin’?”

“It is not, Caterine,” replied Alice, uttering the disavowal with a good deal of earnestness; “there is no truth whatsoever in it; nothing can be more false and groundless—­I wonder how such a rumor could have got abroad; it certainly could not proceed from Mr. Woodward.”

“It did not, indeed, Miss Alice; but it did from his brother, who, it seems, is very fond of him, and said he was glad of it; but indeed, miss, it delights my heart to hear that there is no truth in it.  Mr. Woodward, God save us! is no fit husband for any Christian! woman.”

“Why so?” asked Alice, laboring under, some vague sense of alarm.

“Why, Heavenly Father!  Miss Alice, sure it’s well known he has the Evil Eye; it’s in the family upon his mother’s side.”

“My God!” exclaimed Alice, who became instantly as pale as death, “if that be true, Caterine, it’s shocking.”

“True,” replied Caterine; “did you never I observe his eyes?”

“Not particularly.”

“Did you remark that they’re of different colors? that one of them is as black as the devil’s, and the other a gray?”

“I never observed that,” replied Alice, who really never had.

“Yes, and I could tell you more than that about him,” proceeded Caterine; “they say he’s connected wid what’s not good.  Sure, when they got up a bonfire for him, doesn’t all the world know that it was put out by a shower of blood; and that’s a proof that he’s a favorite wid the devil and the fairies.”

“I believe,” replied Alice, “that there is no doubt whatsoever about the shower of blood; but I should not consider that fact as proof that he is a favorite with either the devil or the fairies.”

“Ay, but you don’t know, miss, that this is the way they have of showin’ it.  Then, ever since he has come to the country, Bet Harramount, the witch, in the shape of a white hare, is come back to the neighborhood, and the Shawn-dhinne-dhuv is now seen about the Haunted House, oftener than he ever was.  It’s well known that the white hare plays about Mr. Woodward like a dog, and that she goes into the Haunted House, too, every night.”

“And what brought you to tell me all this, Caterine?” asked Alice.