Should he meet
with an accident! I mind me now a fearful legend, familiar to my
childhood. Can it be that the drivers on this line are privately
instructed to despatch all passengers maimed by accident, to
prevent tedious litigation? No, no. But why this weight upon my
heart?"
She seated herself at the piano and lightly passed her hand over
the keys. Then, in a clear mezzo-soprano voice, she sang the first
verse of one of the most popular Irish ballads:--
"O Arrah, ma dheelish, the distant dudheen
Lies soft in the moonlight, ma bouchal vourneen:
The springing gossoons on the heather are still,
And the caubeens and colleens are heard on the hills."
But as the ravishing notes of her sweet voice died upon the air,
her hands sank listlessly to her side. Music could not chase away
the mysterious shadow from her heart. Again she rose. Putting on
a white crape bonnet, and carefully drawing a pair of lemon-colored
gloves over her taper fingers, she seized her parasol and plunged
into the depths of the pine forest.
CHAPTER IV.
Genevra had not proceeded many miles before a weariness seized upon
her fragile limbs, and she would fain seat herself upon the trunk
of a prostrate pine, which she previously dusted with her
handkerchief.
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