few notes passing, they determined on this runnin' away
folly. I think it was them novels she was always readin' put it in her
head. It wouldn't do, you know, to be like other folks, but they must
have a little kind of a romance about it. Puir, fulish, young things!"

"You see, I was living with old Mr. Elwyn then," continued Mammy;
"indeed, I've been in the family ever since I came over from Scotland,
quite a lassie, thirty-one years ago come next April. I left them,
besure, when I married; but as my gude-man lived but two years, I was
soon back in my old home again. Old Mr. Elwyn, Master Harry's father,
had lost his property before this time; but his brother, 'Uncle Ben,' as
they called him, was very rich. They all lived together--'Uncle Ben,'
old Mr. Elwyn, Master Harry and Miss Ellen, that's Mrs. Wharton. Miss
Ellen was a few years older than Master Harry, and she was the
housekeeper. But Master Harry, bless you! was only twenty years old,
when he walked in one morning, and told his father he was married. I
never shall forget the time there was then! The old gentleman was
complaining, and had had a bad night, though Master Harry did not know
that. Well, the sudden shock threw him into an apoplectic fit; and two
days after, he had another, and died. Master Harry was almost distracted
then: he called himself his father's murderer; and, indeed, I think he
was never what you might call well from that time."

"But you never saw any one so angry as Mr. Benjamin Elwyn was. He had
always intended to make master Harry his heir, but his conduct in this
foolish affair enraged him so that he said he would leave him nothing.
At first the young folks lived with her father, but he soon died,
leaving his daughter a little property settled on herself. But it was
not enough to support them, and so Master Harry had to apply to old Mr.
Benjamin Elwyn again, and the old man gave him this place, and enough to
live on pretty comfortably here. He told Master Harry that perhaps
something might be made of his baby wife yet, if he brought her away
from the follies of the city, to a country place like this, and tried to
improve her mind; and so they have lived here ever since, till last
year, when poor master Harry died."

"And what do ye think is the raison that the misthress thrates little
Miss Agnes the way she does?"

"Well, I can hardly tell you, Bridget. In the first place, I have often
heard her say that she couldn't abide _girls_, a