trying a _coup de main_. You have foiled me, and conquered: be it so; I
congratulate you. You are tolerably rich, and the loss of Evelyn's
fortune will not vex you as it would have done me."

"Lord Vargrave, it is but poor affectation to treat thus lightly the dark
falsehood you conceived, the awful curse you inflicted upon me. Your
sight is now so painful to me, it so stirs the passions that I would seek
to suppress, that the sooner our interview is terminated the better. I
have to charge you, also, with a crime,--not, perhaps, baser than the one
you so calmly own, but the consequences of which were more fatal: you
understand me?"

"I do not."

"Do not tempt me! do not lie!" said Maltravers, still in a calm voice,
though his passions, naturally so strong, shook his whole frame. "To
your arts I owe the exile of years that should have been better spent; to
those arts Cesarini owes the wreck of his reason, and Florence Lascelles
her early grave! Ah, you are pale now; your tongue cleaves to your
mouth! And think you these crimes will go forever unrequited; think you
that there is no justice in the thunderbolts of God?"

"Sir," said Vargrave, starting to his feet, "I know not what you suspect,
I care not what you believe! But I am accountable to man, and that
account I am willing to render. You threatened me in the presence of my
ward; you spoke of cowardice, and hinted at danger. Whatever my faults,
want of courage is not one. Stand by your threats,--I am ready to brave
them!"

"A year, perhaps a short month, ago," replied Maltravers, and I would