In fact, the brothers were now inseparable, Harry's object being to keep Charles as much under his eye and control as possible, from an apprehension that, on cool reflection, he might take it into his head to satisfy himself by a personal interview with Alice Goodwin as to the incomprehensible change which had estranged her affection from him.
Still, although the affection of those brothers seemed to increase, the conduct of Harry was full of mystery.

That the confidence he placed in Charles was slight and partial admitted of no doubt.

He was in the habit, for instance, of going out after the family had gone to bed, as we have mentioned before; and it was past all doubt that he had been frequently seen accompanied, in his midnight rambles, by what was known in the neighborhood as the Black Spectre, or, by the common people, as the _Shan-dhinne-dhue_, or the dark old man.

These facts invested his character, which, in spite of all his plausibility of manner, was unpopular, with something of great dread, as involving on his part some unholy association with the evil and supernatural.

This was peculiarly the age of superstition and of a belief in the connection of both men and women with diabolical agencies; for such was the creed of the day.
One evening, about this time, Caterine Collins was on her way home to Rathfillan, I when, on crossing a piece of bleak moor adjacent to the town, a powerful young fellow, dressed in the truis, cloak, and barrad of the period, started up from a clump of furze bushes, and addressed her as follows:-- "Caterine," said he, "are you in a hurry ?" "Not particularly," she replied; "but in God's name, Shawn, what brings you here?
Are you mad?
or what tempts you to come within the jaws of the law that are gaping for you as their appointed victim?
Don't you know you are an outlaw ?" "I will answer your first question first," he replied.