removed those of the girl.

"Weep not, but listen, _carissima_. I have much to say to thee before
I go; I feared to die before you came; and even in my grave I could not
rest with the words I must say unsaid. I have a legacy to leave thee,
my daughter."

"A legacy?"

The girl opened her great black eyes in wide surprise.

"Even so. Not of lands, or houses, or gold, or honors, but something a
thousand-fold greater--an inheritance of hatred and revenge!"

"My mother!"

"Listen to me, my daughter, and my dying malediction be upon thee if
thou fulfillest not the trust. Thou hast heard the name of Kingsland?"

"Ay, often; from my father ere he died--from thee, since. Was it not
his last command to me--this hatred of their evil race? Did I not
promise him on his death-bed, four years ago? Does my mother think I
forget?"

"That is my brave daughter. You know the cruel story of treachery and
wrong done thy grandmother, Zenith--you know the prediction your father
made to my father, Sir Jasper Kingsland, on the night of his son's
birth. Be it thine, my brave daughter, to see that prediction
fulfilled."