representing the murder of Becket. A scowl blackened his face as he
glanced at it, and turned away, muttering:

"Malice prepense! or the devil!"

At a little distance, leisurely cropping the long grass, stood his
favorite horse, whose arched forehead and peculiar mouse-color
proclaimed his unmistakable descent from the swift hordes that scour
the Kirghise steppes, and sanctioned the whim which induced his
master to call him "Tamerlane." As Mr. Murray approached his horse,
Edna walked away toward the house, fearing that he might overtake
her; but no sound of hoofs reached her ears, and looking back as she
crossed the avenue and entered the flower-garden, she saw horse and
rider standing where she left them, and wondered why Mr. Murray was
so still, with one arm on the neck of his Tartar pet, and his own
head bent down on his hand.

In reflecting upon what had occurred, she felt her repugnance
increase, and began to think that they could not live in the same
house without continual conflicts, which would force her to abandon
the numerous advantages now within her grasp. The only ray of hope
darted through her mind when she recalled his allusion to a
contemplated visit to the South Sea Islands, and the possibility of
his long absence. Insensibly her dislike of the owner extended to
everything he handled, and much as she had enjoyed the perusal of
Dante, she determined to lose no time in restoring the lost volume,
which she felt well assured his keen eyes would recognize the first
time she inadvertently left it in the library or the greenhouse. The
doubt of her honesty, which he had expressed to his mother, rankled
in the orphan's memory, and for some days she had been nerving