adful. Do let me prevail on you to calm
yourself, and tell me your story, as you promised."

"Calm myself!" repeated the gentle lady, in a tone half snappish, half
harsh, "do you think I am made of iron, to tell you my story and be
calm? I hate him! I hate him! I would kill him if I could: and if you,
Sir Norman, are half the man I take you to be, you will rid the world of
the horrible monster before morning dawns!"

"My dear lady, you seem to forget that the case is reversed, and that he
is going to rid the world of me," said Sir Norman, with a sigh.

"No, not if you do as I tell you; and when I have told you how much
cause I have to abhor him, you will agree with me that killing him will
be no murder! Oh, if there is One above who rules this world, and will
judge us all, why, why does He permit such monsters to live?"

"Because He is more merciful than his creatures," replied Sir Norman,
with calm reverence,--"though His avenging hand is heavy on this doomed
city. But, madame, time is on the wing, and the headsman will be here
before your story is told."

"Ah, that story! How am I to tell it, I wonder, two words will comprise
it all--sin and misery--misery and sin! For, buried alive here, as I
am--buried alive, as I've always been--I know what both words mean;
they have been branded on heart and brain in letters of fire. And that
horrible monstrosity is the cause of all--that loathsome, misshapen,
hideous abortion has banned and cursed my whole life! He is my
first recollection. As far back as I can look through the dim eye of
childhood's years, that horrible face, that gnarled and twisted trunk,
those devilish eyes glare at me like the eyes and face of a wild beast.
As memory grows stronger and more vivid, I can see that same face
still--the dwarf! the dwarf! the dwarf!--Satan's true representative on
earth, darkening and blighting ever passing year. I do not know where we
lived, but I imagine it to have been one of the vilest and lowest dens
in London, though the rooms I occupied were, for that matter, decent and
orderly enough. Those rooms the daylight never entered, the windows
were boarded up within, and fastened by shutters without, so that of the
world beyond I was as ignorant as a child of two hours old. I saw but
two human faces, his"--she seemed to hate him too much even to pronounce
his name--"and his housekeeper's, a creature almost as vile as himself,
and who is now a servant here; and with this preci