!"

The next moment the fatal scroll lay torn and defaced at my feet. A cry
of despair burst from my lips: I sprang forward, and with one blow laid
him senseless at my feet, and fled from the house.

I saw Robert Moncton but once again. Recollection shudders when I
recall that dreadful meeting.

I walked rapidly down the street, perfectly unconscious that I was
without my hat, and that the rain was falling in torrents; or that I
was an object of curiosity to the passers-by.

Some one caught my arm.

I turned angrily round to shake off the intruder--it was my friend
Harrison.

"In the name of Heaven! Geoffrey, tell me what has happened? What is
the matter--are you in your right senses? Have you quarrelled with your
uncle? Let me return with you to the house," were questions he asked in
a breath.

"_My uncle!_ he is an infernal scoundrel!" I exclaimed, throwing out my
clenched hand, and hurrying on still faster. "Oh, that I could crush
him with one blow of this fist!"

"Geoffrey, you are mad--do you know what you say?"

"Perfectly well--stand back, and let me kill him!"

He put his arm forcibly round me. "Calm yourself, Geoffrey. What has
caused this dreadful excitement? Good Heavens! how you tremble. Lean
upon me--heavier yet. The arm of a sincere friend supports you--one who
will never desert you, let what will befall."

"Leave me, George, to my fate. I have been shamefully treated, and I
don't care what becomes of me."

"If you are unable to take care of yourself, Geoffrey," he replied,
clasping my hand fervently in his own, and directing my steps down a
less frequented street, "it is highly necessary that some one should,
until your mind a restored to its usual tranquillity. Return with me to
my lodgings; take a composing draught, and go to bed. Your eyes are
bloodshot, and starting from your head for want of sleep."

"Sleep! how is it possible for me to sleep, when the blood is boiling
in my veins, and my brain is on fire, and I am tempted every moment to
commit an act of desperation?"

"This feverish state cannot last, my poor friend; these furious bursts
of passion must yield to exhaustion. Your knees bend under you. In a
few minutes we shall be beyond public observation, and can talk over
the matter calmly."

As he ceased speaking, a deadly faintness stole over me--my head grew
giddy, the surrounding objects swam round me in endless circles and
with surprising rapidity, the heavens vanished fro