d been in the
habit of imposing on herself we mean that of attending and relieving
the sick and indigent in her immediate neighborhood. On the morning in
question Juli Purcel, who, together with her sister, for some time past
been attending the bed of an interesting young female, to one of her
father's workmen, had got up at an early hour to visit her--scarcely
with a hope, it is true, that she would find the poor invalid alive.
Much to her satisfaction, however, she found her better, and with some
dawning prospects of ultimate recovery. She left with her mother the
means of procuring such comforts as she considered might be suitable to
her in the alternative of her convalescence, and had got more than home
when she felt startled for a by the appearance of a person who seemed
to have been engaged in some of these nightly outrages that were then so
numerous in the country. The person in question had just leaped from an
open breach in the hedge which bounded the right-hand side of the road
exactly opposite where she was passing. The stranger's appearance was
certainly calculated to excite terror, especially in a female; for
although he did not wear the shirt over his clothes, his face was so
deeply blackened that a single shade of his complexion could not be
recognized. We need not again assure our readers that Julia Purcel
possessed the characteristic firmness and courage of her family, but
notwithstanding this she felt somewhat alarmed at the appearance of a
lawless Whiteboy, who was at that moment most probably on his return
from the perpetration of some midnight atrocity. This alarm was
increased on seeing that the person in question approached her, as if
with some deliberate intent.

[Illustration: PAGE 445-- Alarmed at the appearance of a lawless
Whiteboy]

"Stand back, sir," she exclaimed. "What can you mean by approaching me?
Keep your distance."

"Why, good God! my dear Julia, what means this? Do you not know me?"

"Know you! No, sir," she replied, "how could I know such a person?"

She had unconsciously paused a moment when the Whiteboy, as she believed
him to be, first made his appearance, but now she pursued her way home,
the latter, however, accompanying her.

"Why, my dear Julia, I am thunderstruck! What can I have done thus to
incur your displeasure?"

"You are rude and impertinent, sir, to address me with such
unjustifiable familiarity. It is evident you know me, but I am yet
to learn how I could