have a greater grievance--jealousy is a kind of madness. One night she
was most galling, and I sat still and said nothing. My life seemed gone
of a heap: I was sick--sick to the teeth; hopeless, looking forward to
nothing. I imagine my hard quietness roused her. She said something
hateful--something about having married her, and not a woman from Quebec.
I smiled--I couldn't help it; then I laughed, a bit wild, I suppose.
I saw the flash of steel. . . . I believe I laughed in her face as I
fell. When I came to she was lying with her head on my breast--dead--
stone dead."

Lady Belward sat with closed eyes, her fingers clasping and unclasping on
the top of her cane; but Sir William wore a look half-satisfied, half-
excited.

He now hurried his story.

"I got well, and after that stayed in the North for a year. Then I
passed down the continent to Mexico and South America. There I got a
commission to go to New Zealand and Australia to sell a lot of horses.
I did so, and spent some time in the South Sea Islands. Again I drifted
back to the Rockies and over into the plains; found Jacques Brillon, my
servant, had a couple of years' work and play, gathered together some
money, as good a horse and outfit as the North could give, and started
with Brillon and his broncho--having got both sense and experience, I
hope--for Ridley Court. And here I am. There's a lot of my life that I
haven't told you of, but it doesn't matter, because it's adventure
mostly, and it can be told at any time; but these are essential facts,
and it is better that you should hear them. And that is all, grandfather
and grandmother."