up a bit when he said so, I can tell ye."

"Sure it would, Adam," exclaimed the dame; "little dear, to think on't."

"Mr Shallard said something of the same sort too, but he showed that he
has a kind heart, for he told me to bring the child to him if we didn't
want to have charge of her, and when I offered his fee he wouldn't even
look at it."

"Good, good!" exclaimed the dame; "I've no doubt he'd act kindly by her,
but I wouldn't wish to give her up to him if I could help it. It's not
every one who would have refused to take his fee, and it's more, at all
events, than old Lawyer Goul would have done, who used to live when I
was a girl where Mr Shallard does now. There never was a man like him
for scraping money together by fair means or foul. And yet it all went
somehow or other, and there was not enough left when he died to bury
him, and his poor heart-broken, crazy wife was left without house or
home, and went away wandering through the country no one knew where.
Some said she had cast herself into the sea and was drowned; but others,
I mind, declared they had seen her after that as wild and witless as
ever. Hers was a hard fate whatever it might have been, for her husband
hadn't a friend in the world, no more had she; and when she went mad
there was no one to look after her."

Then Dame Halliburt told a tale, interrupted by many questions by the
good Adam, of which this is the substance.

Lawyer Goul had a son, and though he and his wife agreed in nothing
else, they did in loving and in spoiling that unhappy lad. He caused
the ruin of his father, who denied him nothing he wanted. Old Goul
wouldn't put his hand in his pocket for a sixpence to buy a loaf of
bread for a neighbour's family who might be starving, but he would give
hundreds or thousands to supply young Martin's extravagance. He wanted
to make a gentleman of his son, and thought money would do it. His son
thought so too, and took good care to spend his father's ill-gotten
gains. As he grew up he became as audacious and bold a young ruffian as
could well be met with. He had always a fancy for the sea, and used
often to be away for weeks and months together over to France or Holland
in company with smugglers and other lawless fellows, so it was said, and
it was suspected that he was mixed up with them, and had spent not a
little of his father's money in smuggling ventures which brought no
profit. Old Martin Goul had wished to give his son a go