head;
shreds of flannel, which might once have borne the shape of drawers, a
tattered shirt of unbleached linen, with an old blanket drawn uncouthly
around his waist and shoulders, completed the costume of the man. His
wife's was equally scant and rude, but so arranged as to present the
idea that even in her breast the sense of fitness, the last feeling of
froward womanhood, was not quite extinguished. The squalid rags and
matted hair, by a single touch of the hand, a gesture, or a shake of the
head, assumed such shape as she fancied would display to greatest
advantage what remained of a coarse and masculine beauty. The
consciousness that she once possessed such beauty fired at once her
heart and eye. Her foot and ankle, which had been rudely tested by
flinty rocks and many a winter's frost, were faultless; her step was
firm; her form erect and tall; her hair black as ebony; her features
coarse, but regular; her brow lofty, but furrowed and wrinkled; and her
terrible eyes dilated with pride, passion and disdain. Her lip's slight
curl, or a shade of crimson suddenly suffusing her dark complexion,
bespoke her feelings towards her husband. He was her drudge, her slave,
her horror and her convenience. Her ruling idea was a wish to have it
understood that the match was ill-assorted and compelled by necessity;
though the last idea bespoke a youth of shame. The child alone was
dressed, and with some care, as if she wished to assert its claim to a
superior paternity or better destiny. Among the predominant passions
which swayed her, avarice seemed uppermost; and she scowled ominously on
her stupid husband, whose rigid impassable stolidity seemed impervious
to all prospects and chances of pleasure and of gain.

The rain continued to pour without abatement during the whole night and
until sunset the succeeding day. The next night passed nearly in the
same way as the first, save that I could not rest from a vague sense of
apprehension with which this woman inspired me. Both the people of the
house slept on the hearth-stone, without any bed, or, as far as I know,
any covering, save their rags. I had an opportunity of overhearing their
connubial colloquy, which was in Irish, and had reference solely to
conjectures respecting us, our character, our object and our money. It
convinced me that our safety would be compromised by any longer delay.
During the pauses of their conversation, I endeavoured to string
together a rough draft of t