hink I could
have pulled the trigger."

"And I had well deserved it, too," said Cashel, sternly. "But let us
hasten forward. Enrique, I am longing to see an old friend beneath
my roof,--longing to see you seated opposite to me, and answering the
hundred questions about old friends and times that are thronging to my
mind."

"No, Roland, my way lies thither," said he, pointing towards the west;
"I have been too long your guest already."

"How do you mean?" cried Roland, in amazement.

"Simply, that for seven weeks I have lived beneath your roof. The
narrative is too long for a moment like this; but enough if I tell you
that it was a plot of Maritana's, who, had I not acceded to the notion,
would have disguised herself and come hither, to watch and see with her
own eyes how you played the great man. To save her from such a step,
when all persuasion failed, I came here as the sailor Giovanni."

"You Giovanni?"

"Ay, Roland; and if wealth had not blinded you so effectually, you
had soon seen through the counterfeit. As Giovanni, I saw your daily
life,--the habits of your household; the sterling worth and fidelity
of the men you made your friends; and let me tell you, Cashel, our old
associates of the Villa de las Noches were men of unblemished honor
compared with those well-bred companions of your prosperity. Often and
often have I been upon the brink of declaring myself, and then have
I held back, sometimes from a curiosity to see the game played out,
sometimes anxious to know how far this course of treachery might be
carried on without its awakening your suspicions. At length, I actually
grew weary of seeing you the dupe. I almost ceased to feel interest
in one who could be imposed upon with such slender artifice. I forgot,
Roland, that I was the looker-on, and not the player of the game. It
was in this mood of mind I had half determined to leave your house,
and suffer you to go down the stream as chance might pilot, when I
discovered that treachery had taken a higher flight than I suspected;
and that, not content with the slow breaching of your fortune by
play and reckless waste, your utter ruin, your very beggary had been
compassed!"

Cashel started back, and grasped the other's arm tightly, but never
spoke.

"Are you still so infatuated as not to guess the traitor?" cried
Enrique.

"You mean Linton?"

"I do."

"But are you certain of what you speak? or do you mistake the cunning
devices of a subtle mind