“‘Ah, ha! you tell me that you cannot snatch that star from the sky, yet you try to make me believe that Edward Demar has eloped with another woman. Whenever I see you take that planet in your hand and lay it down at my feet, then you may try to convince me that my boy was dishonest. Ah, ha! yes, you see how it is yourself, don’t you? Did you ever hear of a certain monkey who raked the chestnuts out of the fire with the paw of an unsuspecting cat? Ah, ha! yes, of course you have; very good, then, you are the unsuspecting cat, and Heartsell is the monkey, and he has been using your paw to rake out his chestnuts. Ah, ha! to be plain, that man wanted to marry your sister; she loved my boy, and therefore Heartsell wants him out of the way; he uses you as his tool to remove his rival; ah, ha! don’t you see? Heartsell has practiced a fraud of some sort on you, deceived you, cheated you, and in all probability ruined you, and killed your sister. Ah, ha! don’t you see?’ “‘Doctor Dodson,’ replied Wallingford, ‘I know my faults are numerous; I confess that my unfortunate temper often gets the advantage of my judgment; I may have acted too rashly in this affair, but it was my duty to guard my dear sisters honor; and when I tell you that she has been deceived by Ed Demar, I only tell you that which I know positively. With my own eyes I saw him in the arms of another woman; that woman has disappeared, so has Demar; and that he has fled with her is a fact beyond controversy.’ “At that moment Mrs. Rockland came to the door and requested the doctor to go in to his patient, informing him that she was again in convulsions. “Harry hurried out of the house and bared his burning brow to the falling dew, while he beat his breast with his clinched fist, hoping to still the gnawing conscience that was torturing his restless soul. All through the night he continued to wander in the garden, half mad with grief, muttering to himself, while the hot blood in his veins seemed to be collecting in his fevered cheeks and heated brow. At early dawn he went in search of Heartsell, and found him sound asleep in his bedroom. “‘Get up, Heartsell,’ he said, as he hurried in, ‘I must speak with you.’ “‘What’s up now, old fellow; something serious, I guess, else you would not be out so early.’ “‘Ah, Heartsell, I never have passed such a night; I did not go to bed at all. My poor sister is dangerously ill; she thinks that we have murdered Demar, and the doctor is afraid she will die.’ “‘Indeed, Wallingford, that is awful news! Why should she think that we have killed Demar?’ “‘He wrote her a letter telling her all about the contemplated duel, left it with his clerk, to be delivered in the event of his not getting back by eight o’clock. In that letter he told her that if he was not killed, he would be at home at eight, and because he did not come, she concludes that we have killed him. Now, why should he write such a letter if he intended to run away?’