s; so, you
know, is O'Connor. Poor Alice, you know, too, is anything but adamant.
And now I will say no more; but in requital for what I have said, go
and send our patient mild mamma, to me. I really must endeavor to try
something with her, in order to save us all from this kind of life she
is leading us."

When his mother entered he assumed the superior and man of authority;
his countenance exhibited something unpleasant, and in a decisive and
rather authoritative tone he said,--

"Mother, will you be pleased to take a seat?"

"You are angry with me, Harry--I know you are; but I could not restrain
my feelings, nor keep your secret, when I thought of their insolence in
requiting you--you, to whom the property would and ought to have come--"

"Pray, ma'am, take a seat."

She sat down--anxious, but already subdued, as was evident by her
manner.

"I," proceeded her son, "to whom the property would and ought to have
come--and I to whom it will come--"

"But are you sure of that?"

"Not, I am afraid, while I have such a mother as you are--a woman in
whom I can place no confidence with safety. Why did you betray me to
this silly family?"

"Because, as I said before, I could not help it; my temper got the
better of me."

"Ay, and I fear it will always get the better of you. I could now give
you very agreeable information as to that property and the piece of
curds that possesses it; but then, as I said, there is no placing any
confidence in a woman of your temper."

"If the property is concerned, Harry, you may depend your life on me. So
help me, God, if ever I will betray you again."

"Well, that's a solemn asseveration, and I will depend on it; but if
you betray me to this family the property is lost to us and our heirs
forever."

"Do not fear me; I have taken the oath."

"Well, then, listen; if you could understand Latin, I would give you a
quotation from a line of Virgil--

'_Haeret lateri lethhalis arundo_.'

The girl's doomed--subdued--overcome; I am in the process of killing
her."

"Of killing her! My God, how? not by violence, surely--that, you know,
would not be safe."

"I know that; no--not by violence, but by the power of this dark eye
that you see in my head."

"Heavenly Father! then you possess it?"

"I do; and if I were never to see her again I don't think she could
recover; she will merely wither away very gently, and in due time will
disappear without issue--and then, whose is t