me an interview
without delay," he retorted insistently, as though secure in his sense of
power over the girl. "I am sure Mr. Gifford will permit--"

"Mr. Gifford will do nothing of the sort," came the bold and rather
startling reply from the person alluded to. "As a friend of Miss
Morriston's I do not intend to allow you to hold any more private
conversations with her."

No doubt with his knowledge of the world and of his own advantage Henshaw
put down Gifford's resolute speech to mere bluff. And Gervase Henshaw was
too old a legal practitioner to be bluffed. "I do not for a moment admit
your right to interfere," he retorted with an assumption of calm
superiority. "I am addressing myself to Miss Morriston, who does not, I
hope, approve of your somewhat singular manners."

Gifford took a step out of the summerhouse and sternly faced Henshaw. "I
am sure Miss Morriston will endorse anything I choose to say to a man who
has constituted himself her cowardly persecutor," he said. "Now we don't
want to have a dispute in a lady's presence," he added as Henshaw began
an angry rejoinder. "You have got, unless you wish very unpleasant
consequences to follow, to render an account to me, as Miss Morriston's
friend, of your abominable conduct towards her. But not here. You had
better come to my room at the hotel at three o'clock this afternoon and
hear what I shall have to say. And in the meantime you will address Miss
Morriston only at the risk of a horsewhipping."

Henshaw was looking at him steadfastly through eyes that blazed with
hate. "I wonder if you quite know whom and what you are trying to
champion," he snarled.

"Perfectly," was the cool reply. "A much wronged and cruelly persecuted
lady. You had better postpone what you have to say till this afternoon,
when we will come to an understanding as to your conduct. Now, as you are
on private land, you had better take the nearest way to the public road."

Henshaw looked as though he would have liked to bring the dispute to the
issue of a physical encounter, had but the coward in him dared. "I am
here by permission," he returned, standing his ground.

"Which has been rescinded by the vile use to which you have chosen to put
it," Gifford rejoined. "I have Miss Morriston's authority to treat you as
a trespasser, and to order you off her brother's land."

Henshaw fell back a step. "Very well, Mr. Gifford," he returned with an
ugly sneer. "You talk with great confidence now,