"I shall deny nothing," retorted the other. "No, I shall deny nothing!" he reiterated as if to himself. "But think for a minute, Mr. Musk--I entreat you to think calmly for one minute! Suppose I could tell you what you ask, could it serve any good end for you to know?" "Good end!" cried Musk. "Why, you know it could. I could kill the man who's killed my daughter--and kill him I will--and swing for him if they like. That'll be a wonderful good end all round!" "Then is it for me to throw temptation in your way? Is it for me to spoil a life, if not to end it? For all you know, Mr. Musk, it may be a life otherwise honest, useful, and of good report. Nay!" exclaimed Mr. Carlton, as if suddenly impatient of his own reticence, "I'll go so far as to say that it once was all three. And the man would do such duty--make such amends----" A groan admitted that there were none to make, and finished a sentence to which Musk had not listened; the one before was sufficient for him; and his broad face shone with the satisfaction of a point gained. "Come," said he, "that's fairer! So you do know him, and you say so like a man. I always took you for a man, sir, though there's been no love lost between us; and I'll say I'm sorry I spoke so harsh just now, Mr. Carlton; for I had a hold of the wrong end o' the stick--I see that now. It was the man that confessed--it was the man. Sir, if you're the Christian gentleman that I take you for, and this here Christianity o' yours ain't all cant an' humbug, you'll tell me that man's name; for I can't call to mind a single one she so much as looked at--unless it was that young Mellis." "No, no; poor George is innocent enough, God knows!" "He's like to be, for all I hear. They say he carries a cross for you o' Sundays--but I won't say no more about that. If he's your right hand in the parish, as they tell me he is, at least I should hope he'd be straight." A puff of wind came through the open window. It lifted the newspaper from the open book, but the rector's hand fell quickly upon both. And there it rested. And his wretched eyes rested upon his hand. "So I've never thought twice about George Mellis. I'd as soon think o' you, sir. Then who can it be?" Mr. Carlton bounded to his feet, white as his collar, and quivering to his nostrils. "You want to know?" "I mean to know, sir." "And to kill him--eh?" "I reckon I'll go pretty near it." "Ah, don't do it by halves!" cried Carlton in a strange high voice. "Kill him now!" His hands fell open at his side; his head fell forward on his breast; and he who had sinned grossly against God and man, yet was not born to be a hypocrite, stood defenceless, abject, self-destroyed. Moments passed; became minutes; and all the sound in the rectory study came from the rattling of its inner door, or through the outer one from the garden. Then by degrees a hard breathing broke on Robert Carlton's ears; but he himself was the next to speak, flinging back his head in sudden misery.