.

Fortune-telling.
Ever since the night of the bonfire Woodward's character became involved more or less in a mystery that was peculiar to the time and the superstitions of the period.

That he possessed, the Evil Eye was whispered about; and what was still more strange, it was not his wish that such rumors should be suppressed.

They had not yet, however, reached either Alice Goodwin or her parents.

In the meantime the feelings of the two families were once more suspended in a kind of neutral opposition, each awaiting the other to make the first advance.
Poor Alice, however, appeared rather declining in health and spirits, for, notwithstanding her firm and generous defence of Charles Lindsay, his brother, to a certain extent, succeeded in shaking her confidence in his attachment.