My back once turned--my _espionage_ abandoned, as I promised it should be, from the time I set my foot on another shore, what will there then be to bound or restrain your grasping, avaricious desires. I shall find myself twice trampled in the dust, and Mary," his voice trembled as he spoke, "she whom I would save from a fate, in my eyes, worse than death, she become your prize, your sacrifice, your victim." He whom Eustace thus severely addressed, retained a moment's moody defiant silence. "Your intention then, is to remain in England," he said at length, with an assumption of haughty unconcern, though there might be perceived a quivering of the eyelids, and an expression of anxious perturbation in his downcast glance. "The old man," with trembling irony in his tone, "will doubtless receive you gladly, and there will be nothing to retard the nuptials of Mary and myself." "No, nothing, if she--if Mary Seaham can consent to wed the man"--he slightly unbared his wrist--"the man who has done this--the man whose name must henceforth ring in her ears as a proverb, a reproach, a by-word through the paths of society--the man whose very children shall rise up and scorn him--whom God and man must alike reprobate and condemn." Eugene Trevor shrank back as from before some deadly serpent discovered to his view. His eye quailed fearfully--his lips and cheek became of a livid, ashy hue. "Eustace," he murmured, in a voice of almost abject deprecation--"Eustace, your feelings of revenge and hatred carry you too far. You have repented of the agreement made between us, and have come thus to threaten and intimidate me. _I_ never meant to draw back from my part of the engagement; but if my promise has no weight in your consideration, how am I to give you further pledge of my sincerity? I swear to you," he continued, eagerly, "that, during the meeting to-day with Mary Seaham, into which I was accidentally surprised, I held out no hope--no promise which could give her reason to suppose that the obstacle to our marriage could now or ever be removed. We parted with that understanding; and to-night," he spoke in a low and hurried voice, "she sent her brother here to break off our engagement, which could only be maintained on such uncertain, uncomfortable terms." "And you consented?" "What else had I to do?"