to
open the door, he said that he was ill, and that he could not speak to
me. But was I not ill, too? If I were dying he would not come to me! and
yet he is my son!'

'Dear mamma! oh, dear mamma! do you know how you are hurting me?'

'No; it is he who is hurting me: he is killing me--absolutely killing
me!--because I kept from him that his father was alive! Did I not do it
for his sake--that he should not be shamed by such a father? Go to him,
Mollie; tell him that you know all about it, and that Audrey Ross will
have nothing to say to him, because he is the son of a felon. Why are
you staring at me? Go! go!' And she pushed her from her so roughly that
Mollie would have fallen if Biddy had not caught her.

'Go, Miss Mollie, or you will drive her crazy with your big eyes and
frightened face. Whist! don't heed the mistress's wild talk; it is never
the truth she is telling you.'

But Mrs. Blake had interrupted the old woman; her eyes were blazing with
angry excitement:

'Where do you expect to go, Biddy, if you tell Mollie such lies? You are
a wicked old woman! You have helped me to do all this mischief! Would
you dare to tell me to my face that I am not the wife of Mat O'Brien?'

'Sorra a bit, Miss Olive; you are the widow of that honest man Blake.
Heaven rest his soul!' returned the old woman doggedly. 'We must be
having the doctors to you, Miss Olive avick, if you tell us these wild
stories.'

'Biddy, you are a false, foolish old creature! and it is you who are
driving me out of my sane senses.'

But at this point Mollie fairly fled.

'Did you see your brother?' asked Michael, as she stopped to dry her
eyes. Kester had never uttered a word; he left Mollie to tell her own
story, and sat leaning his head on his hands. For once Mollie's
loquacity was suffered unchecked.

'It was dark, and I could not see him; it was quite late, you
know--nearly twelve o'clock. He came out and listened to me; but the
passage and the room were quite dark.

'"Go down, Mollie," he said, "and tell my mother that I cannot speak to
her to-night. It is quite impossible; she ought not to expect it."

'"But she is ill, Cyril--I am sure she is dreadfully ill; her eyes look
so strange, and she is saying such things!"

'"Biddy will take care of her; if she needs a doctor, you must go for
one. But nothing on earth would induce me to see her to-night." And then
he went back into his room and locked the door.'

'Poor Mollie!'

'Oh, th