"Father!" cried Fred, "for God's sake, don't tell me you killed her--for God's sake don't. No, no; it is not true." "Silence! hypocrite! murderer!" cried the old man. "Listen. I tell you that all that day the devil was dancing those diamonds before my eyes. I saw them in the glittering waters of the sea. I turned to Claire, and her eyes shone like diamonds. The night came, and the sky was all studded with gems, and they were sparkling and reflected in the water. Diamonds--always diamonds; and above stairs, in that room, a casket with necklet and bracelets, all diamonds, and the devil always whispering in my ear that I had but to get two or three taken out and replaced with paste, while I pledged the real stones for a few months, and redeemed them as soon as I could turn myself round. Do you hear me?" "Yes, I hear you," said Fred, with a strange look of horror intensifying in his face. "I fought against the temptation. I struggled with it, as I said that I had always been a weak, foolish fashion-seeker, but an honest gentleman. I swore that I would not defile myself by such a crime; but there were my bills; there was the demand for money for a score of pressing necessities, and the fiend whispered to me that it would not be a crime, only taking them from that miserable old worldly creature as a loan." "Go on," said Fred hoarsely; "go on." And he stared with horror in the old man's upturned face. "Then the night came, and my children went to their beds innocent of the agony I suffered, for there was the temptation stronger than before. I went to my room, and looked out. The sea and sky were all diamonds; and I tore back the blind, and I said that I must have two or three of the wretched stones--that I would have them--borrow them for a time, and be free." "Oh, father, father!" groaned Fred; and Denville went on excitedly. "I said I would have them, and I waited till it would be safe to go. I knew that the old woman would have taken her sleeping-draught, and that it would be easy enough to go in and get her keys--I knew where she kept them--take out the diamond cross, get the stones changed, and replace it before she would miss it the next afternoon." Fred groaned, and the old man went on, clutching him now by the arm as he spoke, gazing fiercely in his eyes the while. "I waited till all were sleeping, and the time seemed to have come, and then, like a thief, I stole out of my room and along the passage, till I was outside the door where the old woman--poor old wreck of a woman-- lay. It was only to borrow those diamonds for a time, and I meant to replace them, though I knew that I was little better than a thief--a cold-blooded, treacherous thief--to deal thus with the woman who trusted to my honour for her safety. But I was so sorely pressed for money, I said to myself; and keeping my creditors quiet meant placing Morton and Claire both well in life, and then my troubles would cease. Do you hear me?"