ven of a menial,
a low groom, what I myself witnessed--what has, before now, become the
ribald jest of the servants in the Castle. I do not ask you to refrain;
that, I know, is useless. I do not ask you to plead the excuse you have
ready--the paltry drivellings of your _love_, as you would doubtless
call it. Son of a base and cowardly trickster, you inherit all your
father's villainy, and I would horsewhip you as I would some base groom,
only that I look upon you as too low--too contemptible even for that!"

He paused for a few minutes, as if for breath, scowling the while at
Brace Norton, who, with flushed face and set teeth, stood bearing it
all, whispering that one name again and again, as a talisman to guard
him from forgetting himself, and, in some furious outburst of passion,
striking down to his feet the lying denouncer of his family.

"I know that it is in vain to appeal to you as I would to an honourable
man," continued Sir Murray, pale with rage, "and here you drive me to my
last resource; for sooner than that weak, drivelling girl should be your
wife, I would see her in her coffin! But I have no need for that:
plastic as wax in your hands, she can be plastic as clay in mine. I can
mould her to my wishes, in spite of all you have done. I can treat you
in the same way, even to making you give her up--now, at once, before
you leave this ground. I have kept this shaft for the last, wishing to
try all else first; and had I had to deal with an honourable man--with
an officer and gentleman," he said sarcastically, "this shaft would
never have been loosed."

"Look here, Sir Murray Gernon," exclaimed Brace, now thoroughly roused,
"I am a frank, plain-spoken sailor. The deck of a man-of-war is no
school for polish and etiquette; but I tell you this to your teeth, that
you know that what you have said to me this day is a base, calumnious
tissue of cruelty, such as no gentleman should have uttered. Nay, it is
my turn now; I listened to you in silence, you shall hear me. You know
my father to be an honourable man; you know, too, that my love for your
child has been the result of no plotting and planning, but of
circumstances alone. You know how accident has thrown us together, and
before Heaven I vow that man never loved woman with a purer--a holier
love. I say it now before you, without shame, without fear, for I am
proud of it--proud, too, of knowing that my love is returned. Do you,
with all your pride,