hich was as menacing as a serpent's hiss. 'You are deranging my plans,
and that is not done with impunity.'

'It is not a matter in which I have any choice.'

He gripped me by the sleeve, and waved his hand round as Satan may have
done when he showed the kingdoms and principalities. 'Look at the
park,' he cried, 'the fields, the woods. Look at the old castle in
which your fathers have lived for eight hundred years. You have but to
say the word and it is all yours once more.'

There flashed up into my memory the little red-brick house at Ashford,
and Eugenie's sweet pale face looking over the laurel bushes which grew
by the window.

'It is impossible!' said I.

There must have been something in my manner which made him comprehend
that it really was so, for his face darkened with anger, and his
persuasion changed in an instant to menace.

'If I had known this they might have done what they wished with you last
night,' said he, 'I would never have put out a finger to save you.'

'I am glad to hear you say so,' I answered, 'for it makes it easier for
me to say that I wish to go my own way, and to have nothing more to do
with you. What you have just said frees me from the bond of gratitude
which held me back.'

'I have no doubt that you would like to have nothing more to do with
me,' he cried. 'You will wish it more heartily still before you finish.
Very well, sir, go your own way and I will go mine, and we shall see who
comes out the best in the end.'

A group of hussars were standing by their horses' heads in the gateway.
In a few minutes I had packed my scanty possessions, and I was hastening
with them down the corridor when a chill struck suddenly through my
heart at the thought of my cousin Sibylle. How could I leave her alone
with this grim companion in the old castle? Had she not herself told me
that her very life might be at stake? I had stopped in my perplexity,
and suddenly there was a patter of feet, and there she was running
towards me.

'Good-bye, Cousin Louis,' she cried, with outstretched hands.

'I was thinking of you,' said I; 'your father and I have had an
explanation and a quarrel.'

'Thank God!' she cried. 'Your only chance was to get away from him.
But beware, for he will do you an injury if he can!'

'He may do his worst; but how can I leave you here in his power?'

'Have no fears about me. He has more reason to avoid me than I him.
But they are calling for you, Cousin Louis.