"What was that?" "I sought for another victim as soon after as I conveniently could. The one spectre superseded the other, until all vanished. They never trouble me now, though sometimes, in my waking moments, I have met them on the roadside, glaring at me from bush or tree, until I shouted at them fiercely, and then they were gone. These are my terrors, and they do sometimes unman me." "They would do more with me; they would destroy me on the spot. But, let us have no more of this. Let us rather see if we can not do something towards making our visions more agreeable. Do you persevere in the sacrifice of this youngster? Must he die?" "Am I a child, Walter Munro, that you ask me such a question? Must I again tell over the accursed story of my defeat and of his success? Must I speak of my thousand defeats--of my overthrown pretensions--my blasted hopes, where I had set my affections--upon which every feeling of my heart had been placed? Must I go over a story so full of pain and humiliation--must I describe my loss, in again placing before your eyes a portraiture like this? Look, man, look--and read my answer in the smile, which, denying me, teaches me, in this case, to arm myself with a denial as immutable as hers." He placed before his companion the miniature of Edith, which he took from his bosom, where he seemed carefully to treasure it. He was again the envenomed and the excited savage which we have elsewhere seen him, and in which mood Munro knew well that nothing could be done with him in the shape of argument or entreaty. He went on:-- "Ask me no questions, Munro, so idle, so perfectly unnecessary as this. Fortune has done handsomely here. He falls through _me_, yet falls by the common hangman. What a double blow is this to both of them. I have been striving to imagine their feelings, and such a repast as that effort has procured me--I would not exchange it--no--not for worlds--for nothing less, Munro, than my restoration back to that society--to that place in society, from which my fierce passions, and your cruel promptings, and the wrongs of society itself, have for ever exiled me." "And would you return, if you could do so?"