"Answer it!" laughed the other, "when and where you will; this is all I ask at your hands." "Ah, T_w_emenhere!" exclaimed a voice, as the speaker just entered the room, amazed at the _fracas_, but ignorant of the cause, "is that you?--what a st_w_anger you are," and he held out a hand. Tremenhere's trembled as he warmly shook it: he was all woman in gentler emotions, and never was there a more grateful heart than his; he felt Vellumy's act deeply. This act seemed the signal which many had been awaiting, not from wavering indifference, but for want of the electric spark, which moves Englishmen more slowly than others, but surer, when its propelling force comes, than all the very warm and sudden impulses in the world. In an instant Tremenhere was surrounded. Those who a day before had condemned him, perhaps too hastily, on the whispered calumnies of Burton, now pressed forward to press his hand. Some few, whose dislocated nerves can never be strengthened to any thing warmer than zero, grumbled at the disturbance, and talked of secretaries, rules, etc., etc.; but the majority rejoiced as over a lost brother restored, for Miles had been a favourite with all. In the midst of this, Burton had slunk away; he could not bully, nor defy; Tremenhere had proof in the evidence of his (Burton's) kindred spirit, and betraying confidant, at Brighton. And certainly there was no table so merry as the one at which Tremenhere sat, surrounded by his friends, to repair a scarcely touched breakfast at home. He would have preferred leaving at once, to return to Minnie and Skaife, especially to remove from the latter's brow that not-to-be-mistaken cloud of disappointment, which he had seen gathered there, at his own supposed coolness and indifference about his wife's fame. But policy dictated another course; there was much he had not explained, and he took this opportunity of doing so. It is indeed to be regretted, that the finest natures admit of passions dark and overwhelming, and the strongest minds are, in some things, the weakest. To see Tremenhere amidst his friends, glowing with joy at having restored Minnie to fame, who could imagine that he ever again would be led down the bitter path of doubt and suspicion, or that these two poisons were only awhile dormant in his breast? When he entered his home, for some moments he could scarcely speak, then, grasping Skaife's hand, he said-- "Give me a grasp from your heart, my friend--to-day you could not, I saw that--now you may, for I have done what a man should." "You do not mean!" exclaimed the man of peace, with a feeling akin to alarm, "that you----" "No, no," laughed Miles; "the coward would not fight; I tried him, but he refused. 'Tis better, done as it is." Poor Minnie had crept tremblingly to his side. In her fear she almost forgot he was safe before her. "I _do_ congratulate you," cried Skaife warmly; "for it was not a thing to be passed quietly over."