ore I moved
a finger."

"You seem to have no scruple about despoiling Miss Murray of her goods,"
said Hugo, drily.

A fresh gleam shot from the young man's eyes.

"Miss Murray is a woman," he said, briefly. "She does not need an
estate. She will marry."

"Marry Brian Luttrell, perhaps."

"If she marries him as Mr. Stretton, she must take the consequences."

"Well," said Hugo, "I must confess, Mr. Vasari, that I do not understand
you. In one breath you say you would not injure Brian by a
hair's-breadth; in another you propose to leave him and his wife in
poverty if he marries Miss Murray."

"No, pardon me, you mistake," replied Dino, gently. "I will never injure
him whom you call, Brian, but if he keeps the name of Stretton I shall
claim the rights which he has given up. And, when the estate is mine, I
will give him and his wife what they want; I will give them half, if
they desire it, but I will have what is my own, first of all, and in
spite of all."

"You say, in fact, that you will not injure Brian, but that you do not
care how much you injure Miss Murray."

"That is not it," cried Dino, his dark eye lighting up and his form
positively trembling with excitement. "I say that, if Brian himself had
come to me and asked me to spare him, or the woman he loved, for his
sake I would have yielded and gone back to San Stefano to-morrow; I
would have destroyed the evidence; I would have given up all, most
willingly; but when he treats me harshly, coldly--when he will not, now
that he knows who I am, make one little journey to see me and tell me
what he wishes; when he even tries to deceive me, and to deceive this
lady of whom you speak--why, then, I stand upon my rights; and I will
not yield one jot of my claim to the Luttrell estate and the Luttrell
name."

"You will not?"

"I will fight to the death for it."

Hugo smiled slightly.

"There will be very little fighting necessary, if you have your evidence
ready. You have it with you, I presume?"

"I have copies; the original depositions are with my lawyer."

"Ah. And he is----"

"A Mr. Grattan; there is his address," said Dino, placing a card before
his visitor. "I suppose that all further business will be transacted
through him?"

"I suppose so. Then you have made your decision?"

"Yes. One moment, Mr. Luttrell. Excuse me for mentioning it; but you
have made two statements, one of which seems to me to contradict the
other." Dino had recovered all his