had ruined. You disfigured my face in your anger too; that an' your
preventing my marriage, an' my character bein' lost, whin it was known
what he refused to marry me for, made me swear an oath of vengeance
against you an' yours. I may now ax your forgiveness, for I neither dare
nor will ax God's."

"You have mine--you have all our forgiveness," replied the old man;
"but, Nell, ax God's, for it's His you stand most in need of--ax God's!"

Nell, however, appeared to hear him not.

"Is that your hand in mine, avick?" said she, addressing her son.

"It is--it is," said the son. "But, mother, I didn't, as I'm to stand
before God, aim the blow at you, but at Rody."

"Lamh Laudher!" said she, forgetting herself, "I ax your forgive----."

Her head fell down before she could conclude the sentence, and thus
closed the last moments of Nell M'Collum.

After the lapse of a short interval, in which Lamh Laudher's daughter
received back her money, the certificate, and the gospel, her brother
discovered that Rody was the person who had, through Ellen Neil,
communicated to him the secret that assisted him in vanquishing the
Dead Boxer, a piece of information which saved him from prosecution. The
family now returned home, where they found Meehaul Neil awaiting their
arrival, for the purpose of offering his sister's hand and dowry to
our hero. This offer, we need scarcely say, was accepted with no sullen
spirit. But Lamh Laudher was not so much her inferior in wealth as our