e smile came back to her face, "I am
Lady Landale, and my sister Madeleine--I grieve to have to say so--has
not had that courage for which you gave her credit to-night."

Little was required at a moment like this to transmute such thoughts
as seethed in the man's head to a burst of fury. Fury is action, and
action a relief to the strained heart. There was a half-concealed,
unintended mockery in her tones which brought a sudden fire of anger
to his eyes. He raised both hands and shook them fiercely above his
head:

"But why--why in the name of heaven--has such a trick been played on
me ... at such a time?"

He paused, and trembling with the effort, restrained himself to a more
decent bearing before the woman, the lady, the friend's wife. His arms
fell by his side, and he repeated in lower tones, though the flame of
his gaze could not be subdued:

"Why this deception, this playing with the blindness of my love? Why
this comedy, which has already had one act so tragic?--Yes, think of
it, madam, think of the tragedy this is now in my life, since she is
left behind and I never now, with these men's lives to account for,
may go back and claim her who has given me her troth! Already I staked
the fortune of my trust, on the bare chance that she would come. What
though her heart failed her at the eleventh hour?--God forgive her for
it!--surely she never sanctioned this masquerade?... Oh no! she would
not stoop to such an act, and human life is not a thing to jest upon.
She never played this trick, the thought is too odious. What have you
done! Had I known, had I had word sooner--but half an hour
sooner--those corpses now rolling under the wave with their sunken
ship would still be live men and warm.... And I--I should not be the
hopeless outlaw, the actual murderer that this night's work has made
of me!"

His voice by degrees rose once more to the utmost ring of bitterness
and anger. Molly, who had restored her cloak to her shoulders and sat
down, ensconced in it as closely as her swaddled arm would allow her,
contemplated him with a curious mixture of delight and terror; delight
in his vigour, his beauty, above everything in his mastery and
strength; and delight again at the new thrill of the fear it imposed
upon her daring soul. Then she flared into rage at the thought of the
coward of her blood who had broken faith with such a man as this, and
she melted all into sympathy with his anger--A right proper man most
cruelly