about the end of the first week in January, he was induced
to go down to Merle Park. There Mr. and Mrs. Traffick were still
sojourning, the real grief which had afflicted Sir Thomas having
caused him to postpone his intention in regard to his son-in-law.
At Merle Park Tom was cosseted and spoilt by the women very
injudiciously. It was not perhaps the fact that they regarded him
as a hero simply because he had punched a policeman in the stomach
and then been locked up in vindication of the injured laws of his
country; but that incident in combination with his unhappy love did
seem to make him heroic. Even Lucy regarded him with favour because
of his constancy to her sister; whereas the other ladies measured
their admiration for his persistency by the warmth of their anger
against the silly girl who was causing so much trouble. His mother
told him over and over again that his cousin was not worth his
regard; but then, when he would throw himself on the sofa in an agony
of despair,--weakened perhaps as much by the course of champagne as
by the course of his love,--then she, too, would bid him hope, and at
last promised that she herself would endeavour to persuade Ayala to
look at the matter in a more favourable light. "It would all be right
if it were not for that accursed Stubbs," poor Tom would say to his
mother. "The man whom I called my friend! The man I lent a horse to
when he couldn't get one anywhere else! The man to whom I confided
everything, even about the necklace! If it hadn't been for Stubbs
I never should have hurt that policeman! When I was striking him
I thought that it was Stubbs!" Then the mother would heap feminine
maledictions on the poor Colonel's head, and so together they would
weep and think of revenge.

From the moment Tom had heard Colonel Stubbs's name mentioned as that
of his rival he had meditated revenge. It was quite true when he said
that he had been thinking of Stubbs when he struck the policeman. He
had consumed the period of his confinement in gnashing his teeth, all
in regard to our poor friend Jonathan. He told his father that he
could not go upon his long tour because of Ayala. But in truth his
love was now so mixed up with ideas of vengeance that he did not
himself know which prevailed. If he could first have slaughtered
Stubbs then perhaps he might have started! But how was he to
slaughter Stubbs? Various ideas occurred to his mind. At first
he thought that he would go down to Alder