In her honesty he placed every confidence, and permitted her to manage
his money and regulate his expenses; but this was merely because her
frugality and economic habits gratified his parsimony, and fostered one
of his strongest passions, which was avarice. There was something about
this amiable creature that won powerfully upon the affections of Ellen
Neil; and in entrusting her with the secret of her love, she she felt
assured that she had not misplaced it. Their private conversations,
therefore, were frequent, and their communications, unreserved on both
sides, so far as woman can bestow confidence and friendship on the
subject of her affections or her duty. This intimacy did not long escape
the prying eyes of Nell M'Collum, who soon took means to avail herself
of it for purposes which will shortly become evident.
It was about the sixth evening after the day on which the Dead Boxer had
published his challenge, that, having noticed Nell from a window as she
passed the inn, he dispatched a waiter with a message that she should be
sent up to him. Previous to this the hag had been several times with
his wife, on whom she laid serious injunctions never to disclose to her
husband the relationship between them. The woman had never done so, for
in fact the acknowledgement of Nell, as her mother, would have been
to, any female whose feelings had not been made callous by the world, a
painful and distressing task.
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