"Too much?" I inquired.
Granny Meehan nodded as she added:
"Some says that it serves me right for lettin' her go to school so long to the mad schoolmaster."
Her voice sank almost to a whisper as she said the last words.
"The mad schoolmaster!" I repeated, feeling that here was no doubt the clue for which I had been so long seeking.
"Whist, ma'am dear! Don't speak that name so loud,—don't, for the love of God!" she interposed eagerly.
"Why, Mrs. Meehan," I said warmly, "you are too sensible and too religious a woman to believe all the nonsense that is talked hereabouts."
The old woman shook her head and hesitated a moment.
"I'm not sayin' that I believe this, that or the other thing," she declared, almost doggedly; "but at the end of life, ma'am dear, we get to know that there are people and things it's best not to meddle with."