She had remarked in the _Cooleen Bawn_, on several occasions, small gushes, as it were, of unsettled thought, and of temporary wildness, almost approaching to insanity.

She knew, besides, that insanity was in the family on her father's side; * and, as she had so boldly and firmly stated to that father himself, she dreaded the result which Reilly's conviction might produce upon a mind with such a tendency, worn down and depressed as it had been by all she had suffered, and more especially what she must feel by the tumult and agitation of that dreadful day.
* The reader must take this as the necessary material for our fiction.

There never was insanity in Helen's family; and we make this note to prevent them from taking unnecessary offence.
It was about two hours after dark when she was startled by the noise of the carriage-wheels as they came up the avenue.

Her heart beat as if it would burst, the blood rushed to her head, and she became too giddy to stand or walk; then it seemed to rush back to her heart, and she was seized with thick breathing and feebleness; but at length, strengthened by the very intensity of the interest she felt, she made her way to the lower steps of the hall door in time to be present when the carriage arrived at it.

She determined, however, wrought up as she was to the highest state of excitement, to await, to watch, to listen.