That a gentleman--one of the quality--could condescend to feel any interest in a humble girl like her, was what she could scarcely have dreamed; but when he told her of her beauty, the natural elegance and symmetry of her figure, and added that he loved her better than any girl, either high or low, he had ever seen, she believed that his words were true, and her brain became almost giddy with wonder and delight.

Then she considered what a triumph it was over all her female acquaintances, who, if they knew it, would certainly envy her even far more than they did already.

After about half an hour's conversation the darkness set in, and she expressed an apprehension lest some of her family should come in quest of her--a circumstance, she said, which might be dangerous to them both.

He then prevailed on her to promise another meeting, which at length she did; but on his taking leave of her she asked him by which way he intended to go home.
"I came by the old green path," said he, "but intend to turn down the glen into the common road." "O, don't go that way," said she; "if you do, you'll have to pass the haunted house, ay, and maybe, might meet the _Shan-dhinne-dhuv_." "What is that," said he.
"O, Lord save us, sir," said she, "did you never hear of the _Shan-dhinne-dhuv ?_ A spirit, sir, that appears about the haunted house in the shape of a black ould man, and they say that nobody lives long afther seein' him three times." "Yes; but did he ever take any person's life ?" "They say so, sir." "When?
How long ago ?" "Indeed, I can't tell that, sir; but sure every one says it." "Well, what every one says must be true," he replied, smiling.

"I, however, am not afraid of him, as I never go unarmed; and if I happen to meet him, trust me I will know what mettle he's made of before we part, or whether he belongs to this world or the other." He then went down the glen, by the bottom of which the road went; and at a lonely place in a dark angle of it this far-famed spirit was said to appear.
This vain, but simple girl, the pride of her honest parents and all her simple relations and friends, took up her pitcher and proceeded with an elated heart by the pathway house.