'And, by the bye, I took a trophy from him--a pretty trinket enough--and have brought it to hang about thy neck as a keepsake. See--pure gold it is, and in its shape strangely like the one I gave thee years ago, and which thou hast doubtless kept so religiously ever since. But this has in it, not my hair, but a braid cut from some woman's head--his light-o'-love's, I take it. Throw that away as unworthy thy chaste ownership: but accept the gold from thy loving husband, Ursula!' When Lady Kildhurm beheld this sure evidence that what she had perhaps foreboded had come to pass, her trembling ceased, and she became strangely composed. She held out her hand for the locket. 'Give it me,' she said. 'Ay, it is pretty, indeed; and I thank thee for it more than for any other gift of thine. Why, this too is smeared with blood; but my lips shall cleanse it--I will kiss it, kiss it, till all is kissed away. And I will wear it in my bosom, Brian, and it shall never come forth thence--never while I live, I promise thee. Thou canst not say I did not prize this gift! The cluster of acorns--give me them also. Hast thou anything else for me?' 'Here is his dagger,' returned the knight with an attempt at a sneer. 'Thou mayest find a use for that, perhaps!' She took the dagger, and then, standing erect before her husband, she met his glance unflinchingly. 'Farewell, Brian,' said she. 'Thou hast been a hard and unloving husband to me. Often, when I would have clung to thee, thou hast put me aside with cold and sneering words, and hast shut me out from that confidence and fair entertainment which a wife should have. For years thou hast confined me to this solitude! travelling abroad thyself, and leaving me here, your wife only in name, and as yielding meek obedience to your tyrannous will. Thou hast neither loved, honoured nor cherished me, and since these two years I have known that thou hast held me in suspicion. God alone knows, or ever shall know, whether the suspicion was just. This is my revenge--that I will leave thee in doubt! But hadst thou been kinder to me, Brian--hadst thou answered the craving of my overwrought heart--hadst thou been true to thy duty as a husband, thou wouldst not have thought me failing in mine as a wife. But I do not ask forgiveness: be God judge between us, which has most wronged the other!' 'You have much to say about God, madam,' broke in Sir Brian: 'but my fear is, your deeds are less heavenly than your words.' 'Look to thy own deeds! for they shall condemn thee for ever!' exclaimed Lady Kildhurm, raising both her hands, one holding the dagger, and the other the cluster of acorns, and then letting them droop slowly towards him. 'Thou hast slain a good and holy man, whose shoe's latchet thou wast not worthy to unlace. Evil shall be thy portion in this world: and if ever thou turnest thy steps heavenward, may the blood which thou hast this day shed cause thee to slip and stumble in the way!'