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step-mother-the "domino's" sister - Miss M'Gurk! The very one I formerly dreaded, and used all my interest against! Such, and so unforeseen, are the changes in life!

Though masculine and disagreeable in person and manner, she was a sensible, keen, active woman; and in the then state of affairs, she was just the one to suit my father. Neither was her heart bad. She had no connexions of her own, and was likely to have no children, and therefore she had no reason to neglect my interest. Some woman should be brought into the house, in the event of the old housekeeper's death; and take her all in all, she was the most suitable.

To poor Honor I wished first to impart my intention, but to speak to her was a matter of great delicacy. Her head and hands had become as it were palsied since Grace's death and there was a sort of vacant content in the countenance that was inexpressibly affecting, as I well knew how the heart really was. I did not could not tell her that I intended to leave the place for ever; but I gently broke it to her, that I wished to go with Edmund

Dillon for a while, till I had recovered my spirits.

"Ay! do go, dear," she cried with sudden animation as if the proposal gave her pleasure. "Go, or yer heart 'id be bruck here, an' ye'd be an ould man afore yer time! Ye look this day, ten years more aged than you did this day month! An' I feel as if twinty years had cum down on me at once, and pushed me into the ground! But what will yer poor father do whin ye are gone?"

"I do not know," said I, hesitating, for we were coming to the interesting point. "Could you, Honor, advise me?"

"I will tell you, dear," she at once replied, and as if she had been thinking on the subject before; then "let him get a wife, offer no hindhrance. An' take hur altogether, M'Gurk's sisther 'id be as anserable as any other, an' more so. As for me, I am quite down; I can't go about the house as I used to do; an' there is no light step now to folly mine-no hand to take the kays, an' help me; so I must give up. An' it's time. Seventy years of joys an' sarrows is inuff for me! An' this last is cum as a

warnin' to purpare. Had she been a marred woman-an 'onest woman in the sight of God an' man, I could live without hur, bekaise the joy of hur well-doin' would stringthin' me, an' make me feel young once more; but as it is— But God's will be done, now an' for ever!”

To save her feelings I pretended to be considering the proposal she made about Miss M'Gurk, as if it was she had first started the suggestion, and I finally agreed to it, remarking that "with both Miss M'Gurk and herself father would be well taken care of.”

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But she hastily interrupted me. No, no," said she, "I cannot live in this dark, dismal house with a strange woman! I don't see any light in it; do you? Does the sun shine in as it used to do? Ah, no! You will not live in it, you could not, an' miss hur that's gone. An' so do I. I couldn't run about, or dance, to be sure; but I took delight in seein' thim that did, an' that I'll never see again! So, darlint, the day that sees you lave the ould house, will see me lave it too-for ever. I'll go live with my sisther-a lone woman, an' poor; but I know you will see that my few

remainin' years or months will be comfortable, an' I shall be more content there than I could be here, an' miss you."

I was shocked to hear the old woman talk of leaving the house that had sheltered her so long; and for the first time a curse rose to my lips as I thought of the heartless cause of all this blight and sorrow! But as I saw that she was bent on going, and as I knew that I could not remain to comfort her with my presence, I offered no opposition to her wishes, solemnly promising that, as far as I had the power, she should not want the little comforts she had been accustomed to. It was easy to satisfy the poor creature, for she asked nothing but her bed and a few trifling articles of household furniture.

My business then was to propose the match to my father. Will you believe that he was the only one that offered any opposition? He was shocked and indignant with me for proposing, or even thinking of such a thing at such a time; but when I told him my determination (not that I intended leaving him finally, but for a time) and that Honor was

leaving him for ever, he at last gave a very reluctant consent. You know Miss M'Gurk's wishes, and will not wonder that she very willingly agreed to accept a husband. But I lectured her, and gave her so many charges touching my interest, the care of the place, and the comfort of my father, that I believe I left a permanent and wholesome impression on her mind; but I depended a good deal on her brother's good feeling too. With all his oddities and nonsense, he was well disposed, and had a high sense of honour and I determined to appoint him as a sort of spy on his sister.

All his little worldly pride was gratified when I opened my mind to him, told him that I had chosen Miss M'Gurk for my future stepmother; and that I hoped he would stand by, and see justice done to his old friend and pupil-my father, when he was married."

"Yes! yes!" he promptly answered, and not without emotion. "Never fear but I'll keep a look out on Diny's motions, an' make her do her duty! She is somewhat masculin' an' obstroppolous at times; but when she gets too much so I put the man upon me, an' frighten

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