triumph.

"This was not all. I said there was not in the wide world a being who
would have saved Tyrrell from the fate he deserved and was approaching.
I forgot, there was one who still clung to him with affection, and for
whom he still seemed to harbour the better and purer feelings of less
degraded and guilty times. This person (you will guess readily it was a
woman) I made it my especial business and care to wean away from my prey;
I would not suffer him a consolation he had denied to me. I used all the
arts of seduction to obtain the transfer of her affections. Whatever
promises and vows--whether of love or wealth--could effect were tried;
nor, at last, without success: I triumphed. The woman became my slave.
It was she who, whenever Tyrrell faltered in his course to destruction,
combated his scruples and urged on his reluctance; it was she who
informed me minutely of his pitiful finances, and assisted, to her
utmost, in expediting their decay. The still more bitter treachery of
deserting him in his veriest want I reserved till the fittest occasion,
and contemplated with a savage delight.

"I was embarrassed in my scheme by two circumstances: first, Thornton's
acquaintance with you; and, secondly, Tyrrell's receipt (some time
afterwards) of a very unexpected sum of two hundred pounds, in return for
renouncing all further and possible claim on the purchasers of his
estate. To the former, so far as it might interfere with my plans or lead
to my detection, you must pardon me for having put a speedy termination:
the latter threw me into great consternation; for Tyrrell's first idea
was to renounce the gaming-table, and endeavour to live upon the trifling
pittance he had acquired as long as the utmost economy would permit.

"This idea Margaret, the woman I spoke of, according to my instructions,