"Well, did you think that story, when rightly viewed, was very
creditable to Mr. Peters?"

"I am not sure I understood the case sufficiently to judge; did you?"

"Well enough, Jane, with the significant winks that passed between
Peters and the sheriff, to convince me that an unjust advantage had
been taken. But perhaps I could have been brought to believe myself
mistaken in this conclusion, had I seen nothing else to confirm it,
and lower him still more in my esteem."

"What else _did_ you see?

"An exhibition of malice, Jane, which astonished as much as it pained
me. That pretended accident, in running over Woodburn, was
designed--nay, coolly designed."

"Why, Sabrey Haviland! how can you talk, how can you believe, so about
one whose betrothing ring is now on your finger?"

"It is indeed painful to do so; but truth compels me."

"Might you not have been mistaken?"

"No; I saw the whole movement. I had been watching him some time, and
I noticed how he prepared those fiery horses of his for a sudden
spring, and saw the look of malicious exultation accompanying the
final act. And even now, I shudder to think what guilt he might have
incurred! Even as it resulted, only in the destruction of property,