What had been her life from that time to the period at which, under Father Marty's auspices, she became the inhabitant of Ardkill Cottage, no one knew but herself.

She was then utterly dissevered from all friends and relatives, and appeared on the western coast of County Clare with her daughter, a perfect stranger to every one.

Father Marty was an old man, now nearly seventy, and had been educated in France.

There he had known Mrs.O'Hara's grandmother, and hence had arisen the friendship which had induced him to bring the lady into his parish.

She came there with a daughter, then hardly more than a child.