"You are trifling; but it will be no trifle to them when they learn that their billing and cooing must end. And from such a cause, too. It will be a terrible shock. The only question is, whether it would not be more humane to say nothing of the impediment until we have brought about another match. Last night, at Parson Christian's, I did what I could for you." Hugh smiled in return; a close observer might have seen that his was a cold mockery of the lawyer's own smile. "Yes, you were always humane, Bonnithorne, and now your sensibilities are shocked. But when I spoke of marriage I meant the ceremony. Nothing more." Mr. Bonnithorne's eyes twinkled. "I think I understand. You intend to separate them at the church door--perhaps at the altar rail. It is a shocking revenge. My very skin creeps!" Hugh laughed lightly, and walked to the window. A slant of sunshine fell on his upturned face. When he turned his head and broke silence he spoke in a deep, harsh voice. "I was humane, too. When she spoke of marriage with Paul, I hinted at an impediment. She ridiculed the idea; scoffed at it." Another light laugh, and then a stern solemnity. "She insulted me--palpably, grossly, brutally. What did she say? Didn't I tell you before? Why, she said--ha! ha! would you believe it?--she said she'd rather marry a plowboy than such a gentleman as me. That was her very word." Hugh Ritson's face was now dark with passion, while laughter was on his lips. "She shall marry her plowboy, to her lifelong horror and disgrace. I promised her as much, and I will keep my word!" "A terrible revenge!" muttered the lawyer, twitching uneasily at his finger-nails. "Tut! You don't know to what lengths love may go. Even the feeble infant hearts of men whose minds are a blank can carry them any length in the devotion or the revenge of love!" He paused, and then added in a low tone, "She has outraged my love!" "Surely not past forgiveness?" interrupted Mr. Bonnithorne, nervously. "It would be a lifelong injury. And she is a woman, too." Hugh faced about. "But he is a man; and I have my reckoning with him also." Hugh Ritson strode across the room, and then stopped suddenly. "Look you, Bonnithorne, you said that with all your confidence on the night of my father's death, you had your doubts until to-day. But I had never a moment's doubt. Why? Because I had assurance from my mother's own lips. To me? No, but worse; to him. He knows well he is not my father's heir. He has known it since the hour of my father's death. He knows that I know it. Yet he has kept the lands to this day." Another uneasy perambulation. "Do you think of that when you talk of revenge? Manliness? He has none. He is a pitiful, truculent, groveling coward, ready to buy profit at any price. He has robbed me of my inheritance. He stands in my place. He is a living lie. Revenge? It will be retribution!"