"Lucy!" he cried to his wife, as soon as he was alone in the room with
her, "who do you think I saw to-day--there, alive in the flesh,
standing smiling on the steps of Sir Edward Jones' house?--that brute
Walter Tyrrel, who killed our poor boy for us!" "Hush! hush, Michael!"
his wife cried in answer. "It's so long ago now, and he was such a boy
at the time; and he repents it bitterly--I'm sure he repents it. You
promised you'd try to forgive him. For Cleer's sake, dear heart, you
must keep your promise."
Trevennack knit his brows. "What does he mean, then, by dogging my
steps?" he cried. "What does he mean by coming after me up to London
like this? What does he mean by tempting me? I can't stand the sight of
him. I won't be challenged, Lucy; I don't know whether it's the devil
or not, but when I saw the fellow to-day I had hard work to keep my
hands off him. I wanted to spring at his throat. I would have liked to
throttle him!"
The silver-haired lady drew still closer to the excited creature, and
held his hands with a gentle pressure. "Michael," she said, earnestly,
"this IS the devil. This is the greatest temptation of all. This is
what I dread most for you. Remember, it's Satan himself that suggests
such thoughts to you. Fight the devil WITHIN, dearest. Fight him
within, like a man. That's the surest place, after all, to conquer him."
Trevennack drew himself up proudly, and held his peace for a time. Then
he went on in another tone: "I shall get leave," said he quietly,
becoming pure human once more. "I shall get leave of absence. I can't
stop in town while this creature's about. I'd HAVE to spring at him if
I saw him again. I can't keep my hands off him. I'll fly from
temptation. I must go down into the country."
"Not to Cornwall!" Mrs. Trevennack cried, in deep distress; for she
dreaded the effect of those harrowing associations for him.
Trevennack shook his head gravely. "No, not to Cornwall," he answered.
"I've another plan this time. I want to go to Dartmoor. It's lonely
enough there. Not a soul to distract me. You know, Lucy, when one means
to fight the devil, there's nothing for it like the wilderness; and
Dartmoor's wilderness enough for me. I shall go to Ivybridge, for the
tors and the beacons."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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