d.

The state of my mother's health was so precarious for a long time as to
render all inquiry from her impracticable; while there was also a very
natural fear of the consequences that might ensue, were she to suspect
the object of any investigation, and learn the perilous position in
which she stood. Her condition was, indeed, a pitiable one,--a young and
widowed mother; a stranger in a foreign land, of whose language she knew
scarcely anything; without one friend of her own sex, separated by what,
in those days, seemed an immense distance from all belonging to her. It
was a weary load of misfortune to be borne by one who till that moment
had never known a sorrow.

Nor was MacNaghten's lot more enviable as, day by day, he received
packets of letters detailing the slow but steady march of those legal
proceedings which were to end in the ruin of those whom he felt to have
been bequeathed to his friendship. Already two claimants for the estate
had appeared in the field,--one, a distant relation of my father, a very
rich southern baronet, a certain Carew O'Moore; the other, an unknown,
obscure person, whose pretensions, it was said, were favored by Fagan,
and at whose cost the suit was said to be maintained. With the former,
MacNaghten at once proceeded to open relations personally, by a letter
describing in simple but touching terms the sad state in which my poor
mother yet lay, and appealing to his feelings as a gentleman and a man
of humanity to stay the course of proceedings for a while, at least, and
give time to enable her to meet them by such information as she might
possess.

A very polite reply was at once returned to this, assuring MacNaghten
that whatever delays could be accorded to the law proceedings--short
of defeating the object altogether--should certainly be accorded; that
nothing was further from Sir Carew's desire than to increase, in the
slightest, the sorrows of one so heavily visited; and expressing, in
conclusion, a regret that his precarious health should preclude him
paying his personal visit of condolence at the Castle, where, he
trusted, the lady would continue to reside so long as her health or
convenience made it desirable. If the expressions of the letter were not
as hearty and generous as honest Dan might have wished them, they were
more gratifying than the note he received from Fagan, written with all
the caution and reserve of the Grinder's manner; for, while not going so
far as to admit