rmitted her, "especially," she added, "as there was no
possibility of Woodward being among the guests."

"Why, my dear child," said her father, "what could put such an absurd
apprehension into your head?"

"Because, papa, I don't think he will ever let me out of his power until
he kills me. I don't think he will come here; but I dread to return
home, because I fear that if I do he will obtrude himself on me; and I
feel that another gaze of his eye would occasion my death."

"I would call him out," replied the father, "and shoot him like a dog,
to which honest and faithful animal it is a sin to compare the villain."

"And then I might be left fatherless!" she exclaimed. "O, papa, promise
me that you never will have recourse to that dreadful alternative."

"But my darling, I only said so upon the supposition of your death by
him."

"But mamma!"

"Come, come, Alice, get up your spirits, and be able to attend this
dinner. It will cheer you and do you good. We have been discussing
soap bubbles. Give up thinking of the scoundrel, and you will soon
feel yourself well enough. In about another month we will start for
Killarney, and see the lakes and the magnificent scenery by which they
are surrounded."

"Well, dear papa, I shall go to this dinner if I am at all able; but
indeed I do not expect to be able."

In the meantime every preparation was made for the forthcoming banquet.
It was to be on a large scale, and many of the neighboring gentry
and their families were asked to it, The knowledge that Cooke, the
Pythagorean, was at the Well had taken wind, and a strong curiosity
had gone abroad to see him. This eccentric gentleman's appearance was
exceedingly original, if not startling. He was, at least, six feet
two, but so thin, fleshless, and attenuated, that he resembled a living
skeleton. This was the more strange, inasmuch as in his earlier days he
had been robust and stout, approaching even to corpulency. His dress was
as remarkable as his person, if not more so. It consisted of bleached
linen, and was exceedingly white; and so particular was he in point of
cleanliness, that he put on a fresh dress every day. He wore a pair of
long pantaloons that, unfortunately for his symmetry, adhered to his
legs and thighs as closely as the skin; and as the aforesaid legs
and thighs were skeletonic, nothing could be more ludicrous than his
appearance in them. His vest was equally close; and as the hanging cloak
which he wore o