“Don’t talk so, Sarah.”

“I know what’s before me—­disappointment—­disappointment in everything—­the people say I’m wild and very wicked in my temper—­an’ I am, too; but how could I be otherwise? for what did I ever see or hear undher our own miserable roof, but evil talk and evil deeds?  A word of kindness I never got from my father or from Nelly; nothing but the bad word an’ the hard blow—­until now that she is afeard of me; but little she knew, that many a time when I was fiercest, an’ threatened to put a knife into her, there was a quiver of affection in my heart; a yearnin’, I may say, afther kindness, that had me often near throwin’ my arms about her neck, and askin’ her why she mightn’t as well be kind as cruel to me; but I couldn’t, bekaise I knew that if I did, she’d only tramp on me, an’ despise me, an’ tyrannize over me more and more.”

She uttered these sentiments under the influence of deep feeling, checkered with an occasional burst of wild distraction, that seemed to originate from much bitterness of heart.

“Is it a fair question,” replied Hanlon, whose character she had altogether misunderstood, having, in point of fact, never had an opportunity of viewing it in it’s natural light; “is it a fair question to ask you who is it that you’re in love wid?”

“It’s not a fair question,” she replied; “I know he loves another, an’ for that raison I’ll never breathe it to a mortal.”

“Bekaise,” he added, “if I knew, maybe I might be able to put in a good word for you, now and then, accordin’ as I got an opportunity.”

“For me!” she replied indignantly; “what! to beg him get fond o’ me!  Oh, its wondherful the maneness that’s in a’most every one you meet.  No,” she proceeded, vehemently; “if he was a king on his throne, sooner than stoop to that, or if he didn’t, or couldn’t love me on my own account, I’d let the last drop o’ my heart’s blood out first.  Oh, no!—­no, no, no—­ha!  He loves another,” she added, hastily; “he loves another!”

“An’ do you know her?” asked Hanlon.

“Do I know her!” she replied; “do I know her! it’s I that do; ay, an’ I have her in my power, too; an’ if I set about it, can prevent a ring from ever goin’ on them.  Ha! ha!  Oh, ay; that divil, Sarah M’Gowan, what a fine character I have got!  Well, well, good night, Charley!  Maybe it’s a folly to have the bad name for nothin’; at laist they say so.  Ha! ha!  Good-night; I’ll go home.  Oh, I had like to forgot; Red Body tould me he was spakin’ to you about something that he says you can’t but understhand yourself; and he desired me to get you, if I could, to join him in it.  I said I would, if it was right an’ honest; for I have great doubts of it bein’ either the one or the other, if it comes from him.  He said that it was both; but that it ’ud be a great piece of roguery to have it undone.  Now, if it is what he says it is, help him in it, if you can; but if it isn’t, have no hand in it.  That’s all I tould him I would say, an’ that’s all I do say.  Keep out of his saicrets I advise you; an’, above all things, avoid everything mane an’ dishonest; for, Charley, I have a kind o’ likin’ for you that I can’t explain, although I don’t love you as a sweetheart.  Good-night again!”