“Well, now, Charley, we will have a double triumph soon, I hope.  All is not lost that’s in danger.  The poor girl is surrounded by a clique.  Priests have interfered.  Her parents, you know, are Catholics; so, you know, is O’Connor.  Poor Alice, you know, too, is anything but adamant.  And now I will say no more; but in requital for what I have said, go and send our patient mild mamma, to me.  I really must endeavor to try something with her, in order to save us all from this kind of life she is leading us.”

When his mother entered he assumed the superior and man of authority; his countenance exhibited something unpleasant, and in a decisive and rather authoritative tone he said,—­

“Mother, will you be pleased to take a seat?”

“You are angry with me, Harry—­I know you are; but I could not restrain my feelings, nor keep your secret, when I thought of their insolence in requiting you—­you, to whom the property would and ought to have come—­”

“Pray, ma’am, take a seat.”

She sat down—­anxious, but already subdued, as was evident by her manner.

“I,” proceeded her son, “to whom the property would and ought to have come—­and I to whom it will come—­”

“But are you sure of that?”

“Not, I am afraid, while I have such a mother as you are—­a woman in whom I can place no confidence with safety.  Why did you betray me to this silly family?”

“Because, as I said before, I could not help it; my temper got the better of me.”

“Ay, and I fear it will always get the better of you.  I could now give you very agreeable information as to that property and the piece of curds that possesses it; but then, as I said, there is no placing any confidence in a woman of your temper.”

“If the property is concerned, Harry, you may depend your life on me.  So help me, God, if ever I will betray you again.”

“Well, that’s a solemn asseveration, and I will depend on it; but if you betray me to this family the property is lost to us and our heirs forever.”

“Do not fear me; I have taken the oath.”

“Well, then, listen; if you could understand Latin, I would give you a quotation from a line of Virgil—­

     ‘Haeret lateri lethhalis arundo.’

The girl’s doomed—­subdued—­overcome; I am in the process of killing her.”

“Of killing her!  My God, how? not by violence, surely—­that, you know, would not be safe.”

“I know that; no—­not by violence, but by the power of this dark eye that you see in my head.”

“Heavenly Father! then you possess it?”

“I do; and if I were never to see her again I don’t think she could recover; she will merely wither away very gently, and in due time will disappear without issue—­and then, whose is the property?”

“As to that, you know there can be no doubt about it; there is the will—­the stupid; will, by which she got it.”