my hands, I wondered
what would be the end. Nothing seemed secure or certain, nothing even
steady or amenable to foresight. Even guess-work or the wider cast of
dreams was always wrong. To-day the hills and valleys, and the glorious
woods of wreathen gold, bright garnet, and deep amethyst, even that
blue river yet unvexed by autumn's turbulence, and bordered with green
pasture of a thousand sheep and cattle--to-day they all were mine (so
far as mortal can hold ownership)--to-morrow, not a stick, or twig, or
blade of grass, or fallen leaf, but might call me a trespasser. To see
them while they still were mine, and to regard them humbly, I rose and
took my black hat off--a black hat trimmed with mourning gray. Then
turning round, I met a gaze, the wildest, darkest, and most awful ever
fixed on human face.

"Who are you? What do you want here?" I faltered forth, while shrinking
back for flight, yet dreading or unable to withdraw my gaze from his.
The hollow ground barred all escape; my own land was a pit for me, and
I must face this horror out. Here, afar from house or refuge, hand of
help, or eye of witness, front to front I must encounter this atrocious
murderer.

For moments, which were ages to me, he stood there without a word; and
daring not to take my eyes from his, lest he should leap at me, I had no
power (except of instinct), and could form no thought of him, for mortal
fear fell over me. If he would only speak, would only move his lips, or
any thing!

"The Baroness is not brave," he said at last, as if reproachfully; "but
she need have no fear now of me. Does her ladyship happen to know who I
am?"

"The man who murdered my grandfather."

"Yes, if you put a false color on events. The man who punished a
miscreant, according to the truer light. But I am not here to argue
points. I intend to propose a bargain. Once for all, I will not harm
you. Try to listen calmly. Your father behaved like a man to me, and I
will be no worse to you. The state of the law in this country is such
that I am forced to carry fire-arms. Will it conduce to your peace of
mind if I place myself at your mercy?"

I tried to answer; but my heart was beating so that no voice came, only
a flutter in my trembling throat. Wrath with myself for want of courage
wrestled in vain with pale, abject fear. The hand which offered me
the pistol seemed to my dazed eyes crimson still with the blood of my
grandfather.

"You will not take it? Very well