sonable offers to induce you to acquiesce peaceably in
your fate, which I would have made an honorable and enviable one; but you
have treated all my kindness with contumely and misconstrued my forbearance
into cowardice. Now you must prepare for the worst."

"Sir--villain, rather, every word you have uttered is as false as the pit
of night, and you know it! Yes, sir, you know that as you stood there and
spoke, unmitigated falsehoods fell from your lips while every declaration!
And knowing this, and knowing that _I_ know it, also, you have the
audacity and the insolent impudence to say that you have offered me an
honorable position in life! Is it possible that you are so fallen as not to
know that in a truthful, virtuous, and noble soul there can be nothing so
abhorrent as lying, villainy, and cowardice? Talk of honor! Better might
Satan take of goodness!"

"Go on! you are only placing thorns in your path, every one of which will
pierce you as a pang of agony."

"I have no doubt you would like to intimidate me by such ominous remarks;
but I have heard similar ones from the same source before; and knowing the
distance which separates their author from truth, you may well rest assured
I place implicit confidence in their falsity."

"I'll prove to you how true they are, then; in one thing, at least, you
shall be convinced of my veracity; and that is, that I am now in earnest,
and mean to remain in earnest until my wishes are accomplished, and you,
the victim of my pleasure, become a suppliant for mercy and restoration to
an honorable position in society."

"_Never!_"

"We shall see; I have been talking,--from this time on, I _act_!"

Saying this he drew a pistol from his pocket, and holding it before her,
went on:

"You see I came prepared this time! I was fully resolved to bring matters
to an issue at any rate, and more especially if you persisted in your
insulting course of address. You have done so; the cup of your
transgressions is full, and the time of your probation expired. Now comes
the judgment!"

He had expected to see her turn pale and tremble, and, perhaps, become a
suppliant for more time to consider the matter; but with the exception of a
little closer compression of the lips, and, if possible, a little more
determined expression, he saw no change pass over her countenance. If
terror she had, it was kept out of sight. She made no reply, and he
proceeded:

"You think because your dagger served you o