the deuce does all this mean? What are you driving at? Prevent the
marriage, you say?"

"If the man," proceeded Connor, not even waiting to give him an
answer--"if the man--had but one good point--one good quality--one
virtue in his whole composition to redeem him from contempt and
hatred--if he had but one feature in his face only as handsome as
the worst you could find in the devil's--yes, if he had but one good
thought, or one good feature in either his soul or body, why--vile as
it would be--and barbarous as it would be--and shameful and cruel as it
would be--still, it would have the one good thought, and the one good
feature to justify it. But here, in this deep and wretched villain,
there is nothing but one mass of vice and crime and deformity; all
that the eye can ses, or the heart discover, in his soul or body, is as
black, odious, and repulsive as could be conceived of the worst imp
of perdition. And this is the man--the persecutor--the miser--the
debauchee--the hypocrite--the murderer, and the coward, that you are
going to join your good--virtuous--spotless--and beautiful daughter
to! Oh, shame upon you, you heartless old man; don't dare to say, or
pretend, that you love her as a father ought, when you would sacrifice
her to so base and damnable a villain as that. And again, and what is
more, I tell you not to prosecute Reilly; for, as sure as the Lord
above is in heaven, your daughter is lost, and you'll not only curse
Whitecraft, but the day and hour in which you were born--black and
hopeless will be your doom if you do. And now, sir, I have done; I felt
it to be my duty to tell you this, and to warn you against what I know
will happen unless you go back upon the steps you have taken."

She then courtesied to him respectfully, and left the room in a burst of
grief which seized her when she had concluded.

Ellen Connor was a girl by no means deficient in education--thanks to
the care and kindness of the _Cooleen Bawn_, who had herself instructed
her. 'Tis true, she had in ordinary and familiar conversation a touch
of the brogue; but, when excited, or holding converse with respectable
persons, her language was such as would have done no discredit to many
persons in a much higher rank of life.

After she had left the room, Folliard looked towards the door by
which she had taken her exit, as if he had her still in his vision.
He paused--he meditated--he walked about, and seemed taken thoroughly
aback.

"B