"God in heaven bless you for the words!" exclaimed the parents of
O'Rorke, each pressing her hand with delight and gratitude. The woman
warmly returned their greetings, but instantly felt her bosom heave
with a hysterical oppression under which she sank into a state of
insensibility. Lamh Laudher More and his wife were proceeding to bring
her towards the door for air, when Nell M'Collum insisted on a prior
right to render her that service. "Begone, you servant of the devil,"
exclaimed the old man, "your wicked breath is bad about any one else;
you won!t lay a hand upon her."

"Don't let her, for heaven's sake!" said his wife; "her eye will kill the
woman!"

"You are not aware," said the magistrate, "that this woman is her
daughter?"

"Whose daughter, please your honor," said the old man indignantly.

"Nell M'Collum's," he returned.

"It's as false as hell!" rejoined O'Rorke, "beggin' your honor's pardon
for sayin' so. I mean it's false for Nell, if she says it. Nell, sir,
never had a daughter, an' she knows that; but she had a son, an' she
knows best what became of him."

Nell, however, resolved not to be deterred from getting-the stranger
into her own hands. With astonishing strength and fury she attempted to
drag the insensible creature from O'Rorke's grasp; but the magistrate,
disgusted at her violence, ordered two of the persons present to hold