"Spare me on that subject, sir!" said Tyrrel. "Hitherto I have disputed my most important rights--rights which involved my rank in society, my fortune, the honour of my mother--with something like composure; but do not say more on the topic you have touched upon, unless you would have before you a madman!--Is it possible for you, sir, to have heard even the outline of this story, and to imagine that I can ever reflect on the cold-blooded and most inhuman stratagem, which this friend of yours prepared for two unfortunates, without"--He started up, and walked impetuously to and fro. "Since the Fiend himself interrupted the happiness of perfect innocence, there was never such an act of treachery--never such schemes of happiness destroyed--never such inevitable misery prepared for two wretches who had the idiocy to repose perfect confidence in him!--Had there been passion in his conduct, it had been the act of a man--a wicked man, indeed, but still a human creature, acting under the influence of human feelings--but his was the deed of a calm, cold, calculating demon, actuated by the basest and most sordid motives of self-interest, joined, as I firmly believe, to an early and inveterate hatred of one whose claims he considered as at variance with his own." "I am sorry to see you in such a temper," said Captain Jekyl, calmly; "Lord Etherington, I trust, acted on very different motives than those you impute to him; and if you will but listen to me, perhaps something may be struck out which may accommodate these unhappy disputes." "Sir," said Tyrrel, sitting down again, "I will listen to you with calmness, as I would remain calm under the probe of a surgeon tenting a festered wound. But when you touch me to the quick, when you prick the very nerve, you cannot expect me to endure without wincing." "I will endeavour, then, to be as brief in the operation as I can," replied Captain Jekyl, who possessed the advantage of the most admirable composure during the whole conference. "I conclude, Mr. Tyrrel, that the peace, happiness, and honour of Miss Mowbray, are dear to you?" "Who dare impeach her honour!" said Tyrrel, fiercely; then checking himself, added, in a more moderate tone, but one of deep feeling, "they are dear to me, sir, as my eyesight." "My friend holds them in equal regard," said the Captain; "and has come to the resolution of doing her the most ample justice." "He can do her justice no otherwise, than by ceasing to haunt this neighbourhood, to think, to speak, even to dream of her." "Lord Etherington thinks otherwise," said Captain Jekyl; "he believes that if Miss Mowbray has sustained any wrong at his hands, which, of course, I am not called upon to admit, it will be best repaired by the offer to share with her his title, his rank, and his fortune." "His title, rank, and fortune, sir, are as much a falsehood as he is himself," said Tyrrel, with violence--"Marry Clara Mowbray? never!"