The revelations of an utterly wicked soul leave a lasting impress
upon the mind which unwillingly becomes recipient of those awful secrets.
The circumstances of Tom Halliday's death and of Charlotte's illness were
not to be forgotten by Ann Woolper. The shadow of that dark cruel face,
which had lain upon her bosom forty years before, haunted many a peaceful
hour of her quiet old age. Her ignorance, and that faint tinge of
superstition which generally accompanies ignorance, exaggerated the
terror of those dark memories. The thought that Philip Sheldon still
lived, still had the power to plot and plan evil against the innocent,
was an ever-present source of terror to her. She could not understand
that such an element could exist among the forces of evil without fatal
result to some one. It seemed to her as if a devil were at large, and
there could be neither peace nor security until the evil spirit was
exorcised, the baneful presence laid in nethermost depths of unfathomable
sea.
These feelings and these fears would scarcely have arisen in the old
woman's breast, had she alone been subject to the possible plottings of
that evil nature. For herself she had little fear. Her span of life was
nearly ended; very few were the sands that had yet to run; and, for her
own sake, she would have cared little if some rough hand had spilt them
untimely. But a new interest in life had been given to Mrs.
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