D’Alton had not calculated on this, and was for a time taken a little aback. His last card, however, was not yet played; and, summoning all his energies together, he braced himself for the enactment of that, which under other circumstances, he would have suffered much rather than become in any sense a party thereto. Addressing the lady once more he said:--“What, then, was your object in writing these letters?” “My object was _to disclose the truth_,” she cried, vehemently, “to denounce you as a blackhearted villain, and to save an unsuspecting youth from becoming the victim of your deep-laid schemes.” D’Alton bit his lip with passion, but restrained himself. “And you do all this solely from conscientious motives,” he said with a sneer. “My conscience, like your own, Mr. D’Alton, is pretty well hardened. No; I have no conscientious motives to impel me to show your true character to the world; but revenge is sweet, and I have not forgotten the scorn and contempt with which both you and your fashionable wife treated me while I was in Montreal. _I_ was not good enough to touch the hem of your garments, but _she_ was dressed up and paraded in the drawing-rooms of those who did not know better than to admit her, and now her b---- daughter is to wed a scion of a noble house, while _I_ am not even recognized. No, Robert D’Alton, you will not become respectable and leave _me_ out in the cold, insulting and spurning me at every turn with your petty offers of money. I have sworn to have my revenge, and by ---- now that the opportunity offers, I _will have it_, too!”