me; can't help themselves. I am sure I don't know why, except that I am
what they call a villain! Ha! the clock striking seven: I dine with a
set of fellows I have picked up on the race-ground; they don't know me,
nor I them; we shall be better acquainted after the third bottle. Cheer
up, Crane: go and scold Sophy, and make her act if you can; if not, scold
Rugge into letting her alone. Scold somebody; nothing like it, to keep
other folks quiet, and one's self busy. Adieu! and pray, no more
matrimonial solicitations: they frighten me! Gad," added Losely, as he
banged the door, "such overtures would frighten Old Nick himself!"

Did Arabella Crane hear those last words,--or had she not heard enough?
If Losely had turned and beheld her face, would it have startled back his
trivial laugh? Possibly; but it would have caused only a momentary
uneasiness. If Alecto herself had reared over him her brow horrent with
vipers, Jasper Losely would have thought he had only to look handsome and
say coaxingly, "Alecto, my dear," and the Fury would have pawned her
head-dress to pay his washing-bill.

After all, in the face of the grim woman he had thus so wantonly
incensed, there was not so much menace as resolve. And that resolve was
yet more shown in the movement of the hands than in the aspect of the
countenance; those hands--lean, firm, nervous hands--slowly expanded,
then as slowly clenched, as if her own thought had taken substance, and
she was locking it in a clasp--tightly, tightly--never to be loosened
till the pulse was still.




CHAPTER V.