"
"Tut, woman, he daren't swear such an oath; or, if he swore it fifty
times over on his bare knees, he'd ate the stones off o' the pavement
afore he'd dare to act upon it. In the first place, I'd prepare him
for his coffin, if he did; an' in the next, do you think so inanely
of Ellen, as to believe that she would bring disgrace an' sorrow upon
herself and her family? No, no, Nell; the old _dioul's_ in you, or
you're beside yourself, to think of such a story. I've warned her
against him, and so did we all; an' I'm sartin' this minute, that
she'd not go a single foot to change words with him, unknownst to her
friends."
The old woman's face changed from the expression of anxiety and
importance that it bore, to one of coarse glee, under which, to those
who had penetration sufficient to detect it, lurked a spirit of hardened
and reckless ferocity.
"Well, well," she replied, "sure I'm proud to hear what you tell me.
How is poor Nanse M'Collum doin' wid yez? for I hadn't time to see her
a while agone. I hope she'll never be ashamed or afraid of her aunt,
any how. I may say, I'm all that's left to the good of her name, poor
girshah."
"What 'ud ail her?" replied Meehaul; "as long a' she's honest an'
behaves herself, there's no fear of her. Had you nothing elsa to say to
me, Nell?"
The same tumultuous expression of glee and malignity again lit up the
features of the old woman, as she looked at him, and replied, with
something like contemptuous hesitation, "Why, I don't know that.
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