The Evil Eye; Or, The Black Spector: The Works of William Carleton, Volume OneCarleton, William
General
The Evil Eye; Or, The Black Spector: The Works of William Carleton, Volume One
Carleton, William
Ireland -- Social life and customs -- Fiction
“Don't be alarmed on that account,” said Casey! “they say the waters
of Ballyspellan would bring the dead to life. Now, good-by, Masther
Charles; don't be cast down--keep up your spirits, for something tells
me that's there's luck before you, and good luck, too.”
After leaving him Barney began to ruminate. He had remarked an
extraordinary change in the countenance and deportment of Harry
Woodward during the evening before and the earlier part of that day. The
plausible serenity of his manner was replaced by unusual gloom, and that
abstraction which is produced by deep and absorbing thought. He seemed
so completely wrapped up in constant meditation upon some particular
subject, that he absolutely forgot to guard himself against observation
or remark, by his usual artifice of manner. He walked alone in the
garden, a thing he was not accustomed to do; and during these walks he
would stop and pause, then go on slowly and musingly, and stop and pause
again. Barney, as we have said before, was a keen observer, and
having watched him from a remote corner of the garden in which he
was temporarily engaged among some flowers, he came at once to the
conclusion that Woodward's mind was burdened with something which
heavily depressed his spirits, and occupied his whole attention.
“Ah,” exclaimed Barney, “the villain is brewing mischief for some one,
but I will watch his motions if I should pass sleepless nights for it.
He requires a sharp eye after him, and it will go hard with me or I
shall know what his midnight wanderings mean; but in the meantime I must
keep calm and quiet, and not seem to watch him.”
Whilst Barney, who was unseen by Woodward, having been separated from
him by a fruit hedge over which he occasionally peeped, indulged in this
soliloquy, the latter, in the same deep and moody meditation, extended
his walk, his brows contracted, and dark as midnight.
“The damned hag,” said he, speaking unconsciously aloud, “is this the
affection which she professed to bear me? Is this the proof she gives of
the preference which she often expressed for her favorite son? To leave
her property to that miserable milksop, my half-brother! What devil
could have tempted her to this? Not Lindsay, certainly, for I know he
would scorn to exercise any control over her in the disposition of her
property, and as for Maria, I know she would not. It must then have been
the milksop himself in some puling fit of pain or illness; and ably must
the beggarly knave have managed it when he succeeded in changing the
stern and flinty heart of such a she-devil. Yes, unquestionably that
must be the true meaning of it; but, be it so for the present; the
future is a different question. My plans are laid, and I will put them
into operation according as circumstances may guide me.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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