"Is that the task you give yourself, Pauline?"

The savage element that lurks in southern blood leaped up in the boy's
heart as he listened, glittered in his eye, and involuntarily found
expression in the nervous grip of the hands that folded a fairer one
between them. Alas for Pauline that she had roused the sleeping devil,
and was glad to see it!

"Yes, it is weak, wicked, and unwomanly; yet I persist as relentlessly
as any Indian on a war trail. See me as I am, not the gay girl you have
known, but a revengeful woman with but one tender spot now left in her
heart, the place you fill. I have been wronged, and I long to right
myself at once. Time is too slow; I cannot wait, for that man must be
taught that two can play at the game of hearts, taught soon and sharply.
I can do this, can wound as I have been wounded, can sting him with
contempt, and prove that I too can forget."

"Go on, Pauline. Show me how I am to help you."

"Manuel, I want fortune, rank, splendor, and power; you can give me all
these, and a faithful friend beside. I desire to show Gilbert the
creature he deserted no longer poor, unknown, unloved, but lifted higher
than himself, cherished, honored, applauded, her life one of royal
pleasure, herself a happy queen. Beauty, grace, and talent you tell me I
possess; wealth gives them luster, rank exalts them, power makes them
irresistible. Place these worldly gifts in my hand and that hand is
yours. See, I offer it."

She did so, but it was not taken. Manuel had left his seat and now stood
before her, awed by the undertone of strong emotion in her calmly spoken