Having expressed a wish to this effect, he dismissed the other parties, except Nell, whom he intended to keep confined until the discovery of her niece.
"Pray," said he to the father of our humble hero, "how do you know, O'Rorke, that Nell M'Collum never had a daughter ?" "Right well, your honor.

I knew her since she was a child; an' from that day to this she was never six months from this town at a time.

No, no--a son she had, but a daughter she never had." "Let me ask you, young man, on what business were you abroad last night?
I expect you will answer me candidly ?" "It's no matther," replied young Lamh Laudher gloomily, "my character's gone.

I cannot be worse, an' I will tell no man how I spent it, till I have an opportunity of clarin' myself." "If you spent it innocently," returned the magistrate, "you can have no hesitation in making the disclosure we require." "I will not mention it," said the other; "I was disgraced, an' that is enough.

I think but little of the robbery." Brookleigh understood him; but the last assertion, though it exonerated him in the opinion of a man who knew something about character, went far in that of his friends who were present to establish his guilt.
They then withdrew; and it would have been much to young Lamh Laudher's advantage if this private interview had never taken place..