42 The Real Charlotte. 



nothing of either chapel or church, and stayed sombrely at 

 home. Marriage had never come near her ; in her father's 

 time the necessary dowry had not been forthcoming, and 

 even her ownership of the farm was not enough to counter- 

 balance her ill-looks and her pagan habits. 



As in a higher grade of society science sometimes steps 

 in when religion fails, so, in her moral isolation, Julia 

 Duffy turned her attention to the mysteries of medicine 

 and the culture of herbs. By the time her mother died she 

 had established a position as doctor and wise woman, 

 which was immensely abetted by her independence of the 

 ministrations of any church. She was believed in by the 

 people, but there was no liking in the belief; when they 

 spoke to her they called her Miss Duffy, in deference to a 

 now impalpable difference in rank as well as in recognition 

 of her occult powers, and they kept as clear of her as they 

 conveniently could. The payment of her professional 

 services was a matter entirely in the hands of the people 

 themselves, and ranged, according to the circumstances of 

 the case, from a score of eggs or a can of buttermilk, to a 

 crib of turf or " the makings " of a homespun flannel petti- 

 coat. Where there was the possibility of a fee it never 

 failed ; where there was not, Julia Duffy gave her " yerreb 

 tay " (/.(?., herb tea) and HoUoway's pills without question 

 or hesitation. 



No one except herself knew how vital these offerings 

 were to her. The farm was still hers, and, perhaps, in all 

 her jealous unsunned nature, the only note of passion was 

 her feeling for the twenty acres that, with the house, re- 

 mained to her of her father's possessions. She had owned 

 the farm for twenty years now, and had been the abhorrence 

 and the despair of each successive Bruff agent. The land 

 went from bad to worse ; ignorance, neglect and poverty, 

 are a formidable conjunction even without the moral sup 

 port that the Land League for a few years had afforded her, 

 and Miss Duffy tranquilly defied Mr. Lambert, offering 

 him at intervals such rent as she thought fitting, while she 

 sub-let her mossy, deteriorated fields to a Lismoyle grazier. 

 Perhaps her nearest approach to pleasure was the time at 

 the beginning ot each year when she received and dealt 

 with the offers for the grazing ; then she tasted the sweets 



