Nell passed rapidly, and with evident indignation out of the room; nor
could any entreaty on the part of the Dead Boxer induce her to return
and prolong the dialogue.

She had said enough, however, to produce in his bosom torments almost
equal to those of the damned. In several of their preceding dialogues,
she had impressed him with a belief that young Lamh Laudher was the
person who had robbed his wife; and now to the hatred that originated in
a spirit of avarice, she added the deep and deadly one of jealousy. On
the other hand, the Dead Boxer had, in fact, begun to feel the influence
of Ellen Neil's beauty; and perhaps nothing would have given him greater
satisfaction than the removal of a woman whom he no longer loved, except
for those virtues which enabled him to accumulate money. And now, too,
had he an equal interest in the removal of his double rival, whom,
besides, he considered the spoliator of his hoarded property. The
loss of this money certainly stung him to the soul, and caused his
unfortunate wife to suffer a tenfold degree of persecution and misery.
When to this we add his sudden passion for Ellen Neil, we may easily
conceive what she must have endured. Nell, at all events, felt satisfied
that she had shaped the strong passions of her savage dupe in the way
best calculated to gratify that undying spirit of vengeance which she
had so long nurtured against the family of Lamh Laudher. The Dead Boxer,
too, was determined to prosecute his amour with Ellen Neil, not more to
gratify his lawless affection for her than his twofold hatred of Lamh
Laudher.

At length nine o'clock arrived, and the scene must change to the
northern part of Sheemus Neil's orchard. The Dead Boxer threw a cloak
around him, and issuing through the back door of the inn, entered the
garden, which was separated from the orchard only by a low clipped hedge