t Sarah
was, without exception, the most perfectly beautiful girl she ever seen.
Her last words, too, and the striking tone in which they were spoken,
arrested her attention still more; so that she passed naturally from the
examination of her person to the purport of her language.

We trust that our readers know enough of human nature, to understand
that this examination of Sarah, upon the part of Mave Sullivan, was
altogether an involuntary act, and one which occurred in less time than
we have taken to write any one of the lines in which it is described.

Mave, who perceived at once that the words of Sarah were burdened by
some peculiar distress, could not prevent her admiration from turning
into pity without exactly knowing why; but in consequence of what Sarah
had just said, she feared to express it either by word or look, lest she
might occasion her unnecessary pain. She consequently, after a slight
pause, replied to her lover--

"You must not blame me, dear Con, for being here. I came to give
whatever poor attendance I could to Nancy here, and to sich of you as
want it, while you're sick. I came, indeed, to stay and nurse you all,
if you will let me; an' you won't be sorry to hear it, in spite of all
that has happened, that I have the consent of my father an' mother for
so doin'."

A faint smile of satisfaction lit up her lover's features, but this was
soon overshadowed by his apprehension for her safety.

Sarah, who had for about a half minute been examining Mave on her
part, now started, and exclaimed with flashing eyes, and we may add, a
bursting and distracted heart--

"Well, Mave Sullivan, I have often seen you, but never so well as now.
You have goodness an' truth in your face. Oh, it's a purty face--a
lovely face. But why do you state a falsehood here--for what you've just
said is false; I know it."

Mave started, and in a moment her pale face and neck were suffused by
one burning blush, at the idea of such an imputation. She looked around
her, as if enquiring from all those who were present the nature of the
falsehood attributed to her; and then with a calm but firm eye, she
asked Sarah what she could mean by such language.

"You're afther sayin'," replied Sarah, "that you're come here to nurse
Nancy there. Now that's not true, and you know it isn't. You come here
to nurse young Con Dalton: and you came to nurse him, bekaise you love
him. No, I don't blame you for that, but I do for not saying so,