shall die as I have lived--alone. All fellowship with my griefs would
seem to me strange and unwelcome."

I would not suffer Glanville to proceed. I interrupted him with fresh
arguments and entreaties, to which he seemed at last to submit, and I was
in the firm hope of having conquered his determination, when we were
startled by a sudden and violent noise in the hall.

"It is Thornton," said Glanville, calmly. "I told them not to admit him,
and he is forcing his way."

Scarcely had Sir Reginald said this, before Thornton burst abruptly into
the room.

Although it was scarcely noon, he was more than half intoxicated, and his
eyes swam in his head with a maudlin expression of triumph and insolence,
as he rolled towards us.

"Oh, oh! Sir Reginald," he said, "thought of giving me the slip, eh? Your
d--d servants said you were out; but I soon silenced them. 'Egad I made
them as nimble as cows in a cage--I have not learnt the use of my fists
for nothing. So, you're going abroad to-morrow; without my leave, too--
pretty good joke that, indeed. Come, come, my brave fellow, you need not
scowl at me in that way. Why, you look as surly as a butcher's dog with a
broken head."

Glanville, who was lived with ill-suppressed rage, rose haughtily.

"Mr. Thornton," he said, in a calm voice, although he was trembling in
his extreme passion, from head to foot, "I am not now prepared to submit