enmity out of the question. All things considered, the brother and
friends of Ellen would rather have seen her laid in her grave, than
allied to a comparatively poor young man, and their bitterest enemy.

Meehaul had but little doubt as to the truth of what Nell M'Collum told
him. There was a saucy and malignant confidence in her manner, which,
although it impressed him with a sense of her earnestness, left,
nevertheless, an indefinite feeling of dislike against her on his mind.
He knew that her motive for disclosure was not one of kindness or regard
for him or for his family. Nell M'Collum had often declared that "the
wide earth did not carry a bein' she liked or loved, but one--not even
excepting herself, that she hated most of all." This however was not
necessary to prove that she acted rather from the gratification of some
secret malice, than from the principle of benevolence. The venomous
leer of her eye, therefore, and an accurate knowledge of her character,
induced him to connect some apprehension of approaching evil with the
unpleasant information she had just given him.

"Well," said Meehaul, "if what you say is true, I'll make it a black
business to Lamh Laudher. I'll go directly and keep my eye on them; an'
I'll have my fire-arms, Nell; an' by the life that's in me, he'll taste
them if he provokes me; an Ellen knows that." Having thus spoken he left
her.

The old woman stood and looked after him with a fiendish complacency.

"A black business, will you?" she exclaimed, repeating his words in
a soliloquy;--"do so--an' may all that's black assist you in it! Dher
Chiernah, I'll do it or lose a fall--I'll make the Lamh Laudhers the
Lamh Lhugs afore I've done wid 'em. I've put a thorn in their side this