Part 21 (1/2)

In the meantime Mrs. Sullivan had uncorked a bottle of holy water, and plentifully bedewed herself with it, as a preservative against this mysterious woman and her dreadful secret.

”Blessed mother above!” she e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed, ”the _Lianhan Shee_” And as she spoke, with the holy water in the palm of her hand, she advanced cautiously, and with great terror, to throw it upon the stranger and the unearthly thing she bore.

”Don't attempt it!” shouted the other, in tones of mingled fierceness and terror, ”do you want to give me pain without keeping yourself anything at all safer? Don't you know it doesn't care about your holy water? But I'd suffer for it, an' perhaps so would you.”

Mrs. Sullivan, terrified by the agitated looks of the woman, drew back with affright, and threw the holy water with which she intended to purify the other on her own person.

”Why thin, you lost crathur, who or what are you at all?--don't, don't--for the sake of all the saints and angels of heaven, don't come next or near me--keep your distance--but what are you, or how did you come to get that 'good thing' you carry about wid you?”

”Ay, indeed!” replied the woman bitterly, ”as if I would or could tell you that! I say, you woman, you're doing what's not right in asking me a question you ought not let to cross your lips--look to yourself, and what's over you.”

The simple woman, thinking her meaning literal, almost leaped off her seat with terror, and turned up her eyes to ascertain whether or not any dreadful appearance had approached her, or hung over her where she sat.

”Woman,” said she, ”I spoke you kind an' fair, an' I wish you well--but”--

”But what?” replied the other--and her eyes kindled into deep and profound excitement, apparently upon very slight grounds.

”Why--hem--nothin' at all sure, only”--

”Only what?” asked the stranger, with a face of anguish that seemed to torture every feature out of its proper lineaments.

”Dacent woman,” said Mrs. Sullivan, whilst the hair began to stand with terror upon her head, ”sure it's no wondher in life that I'm in a perplexity, whin a _Lianhan Shee_ is undher the one roof wid me. 'Tisn't that I want to know anything' at all about it--the dear forbid I should; but I never hard of a person bein' tormented wid it as you are. I always used to hear the people say that it thrated its friends well.”

”Husht!” said the woman, looking wildly over her shoulder, ”I'll not tell: it's on myself I'll leave the blame! Why, will you never pity me?

Am I to be night and day tormented? Oh, you're wicked an' cruel for no reason!”

”Thry,” said Mrs. Sullivan, ”an' bless yourself; call on G.o.d.”

”Ah!” shouted the other, ”are you going to get me killed?” and as she uttered the words, a spasmodic working which must have occasioned great pain, even to torture, became audible in her throat: her bosom heaved up and down, and her head was bent repeatedly on her breast, as if by force.

”Don't mention that name,” said she, ”in my presence, except you mean to drive me to utter distraction. I mean,” she continued, after a considerable effort to recover her former tone and manner--”hear me with attention--I mean, woman--you, Mary Sullivan--that if you mention that holy name, you might as well keep plunging sharp knives into my heart!

Husht! peace to me for one minute, tormentor! Spare me something, I'm in your power!”

”Will you ate anything?” said Mrs. Sullivan; ”poor crathur, you look like hunger an' distress; there's enough in the house, blessed be them that sent it! an' you had betther thry an' take some nourishment, any way;” and she raised her eyes in a silent prayer of relief and ease for the unhappy woman, whose unhallowed a.s.sociation had, in her opinion, sealed her doom.

”Will I?--will I?--oh!” she replied, ”may you never know misery for offering it! Oh, bring me something--some refreshment--some food--for I'm dying with hunger.”

Mrs. Sullivan, who, with all her superst.i.tion, was remarkable for charity and benevolence, immediately placed food and drink before her, which the stranger absolutely devoured--taking care occasionally to secrete under the protuberance which appeared behind her neck, a portion of what she ate. This, however, she did, not by stealth, but openly; merely taking means to prevent the concealed thing, from being, by any possible accident discovered.

When the craving of hunger was satisfied, she appeared to suffer less from the persecution of her tormentor than, before; whether it was, as Mrs. Sullivan thought, that the food with which she plied it, appeased in some degree its irritability, or lessened that of the stranger, it was difficult to say; at all events, she became more composed; her eyes resumed somewhat of a natural expression; each sharp ferocious glare, which shot, from them! with such intense and rapid flashes, partially disappeared; her knit brows dilated, and part of a forehead, which had once been capacious and handsome, lost the contractions which deformed it by deep wrinkles. Altogether the change was evident, and very-much relieved Mrs. Sullivan, who could not avoid observing it.

”It's not that I care much about it, if you'd think it not right o' me, but it's odd enough for you to keep the lower part of your face m.u.f.fled up in that black cloth, an' then your forehead, too, is covered down on your face a bit? If they're part of the bargain,”--and she shuddered at the thought--”between you an' anything that's not good--hem!--I think you'd do well to throw thim off o' you, an' turn to thim that can protect you from everything that's bad. Now a scapular would keep all the divils in h.e.l.l from one; an' if you'd”--

On looking at the stranger she hesitated, for the wild expression of her eyes began to return.

”Don't begin my punishment again,” replied the woman; ”make no allus--don't make mention in my presence of anything that's good.

Husht,--husht,--it's beginning--easy now--easy! No,” said she, ”I came to tell you, that only for my breakin' a vow I made to this thing upon me, I'd be happy instead of miserable with it. I say, it's a good thing to have, if the person will use this bottle,” she added, producing one, ”as I will direct them.”

”I wouldn't wish, for my part,” replied Mrs. Sullivan, ”to have anything to do wid it--neither act nor part;” and she crossed herself devoutly, on contemplating such an unholy alliance as that at which her companion hinted.

”Mary Sullivan,” replied the other, ”I can put good fortune and happiness in the way of you and yours. It is for you the good is intended; if you don't get both, no other can,” and her eyes kindled as she spoke, like those of the Pythoness in the moment of inspiration.