much. She tould Kate Duffy so herself,
and boasted of it: but wait."

"Well," replied Hanlon, anxious to keep down the gust of jealousy which
he saw rising, "and if she did, how could I prevent her?"

"What letthers did she put on it?"

"P. and an M.," he replied, "the two first letthers of my name."

"That's another lie," she exclaimed; "they're not the two first letthers
of your name, but of her own; there's no M in Hanlon. At any rate,
unless you give the same handkerchy to me, I'll make it be a black
business to her."

"Keep it, keep it, wid all my heart," he replied, glad to get rid of a
topic which at that moment came on him so powerfully and unseasonably.
"Do what you like wid it."

"You say so willingly, now--do you?"

"To be sure I do; an' you may tell the whole world that I said so, if
you like."

"P. M.--oh, ay, that's for Peggy Murray--maybe the letthers I saw on the
ould tobaccy-box I found in the hole of the wall to-day were for Peggy
Murray. Ha! ha! ha! Oh, may be I won't have a brag over her!"

"What letthers?" asked Hanlon eagerly; "a tobaccy-box, did you say?"

"Ay did I--a tobaccy-box. I found it in a hole in the wall in our
house to-day; it tumbled out while I was gettin' some cobwebs to stop a
bleedin'."

"Was it a good one?" asked Hanlon, with apparent carelessness, "could
one use it?"

"Hardly; but no, it's all rusty, an' has but one hinge."

"But one hinge!" repeated the other, who was almost breathless with
anxiety; "an' the letthers--what's this you say they wor?"

"The very same that's on your handkerchy," she replied--"a P. an' an M."

"Great God!" he exclaimed, "is this possible! Heavens! What is that? Did
you hear anything?"

"What ails you?" she enquired. "Why do you look so frightened?"

"Did you hear nothing?" he again asked.

"Ha! ha!--hear!" she replied, laughing--"hear; I thought I heard
something like a groan; but sure 'tis only the wind. Lord! what a night!
Listen how the wind an' storm growls an' tyrannizes and rages down in
the glen there, an' about the hills. Faith there'll be many a house
stripped this night. Why, what ails you? Afther all, you're but a
hen-hearted divil, I doubt; sorra thing else."

Hanlon made her no reply, but took his hat off, and once more offered up
a short prayer, apparently in deep and most extraordinary excitement.

"I see," she observed, after he had concluded, "that you're bent on your
devotions this night; and the devil's ow