"It's devilish hard for him, poor fellow," he thought, as, measuring Vinal's passion by his own, a vivid image of the latter's suffering rose upon him. Vinal strode along a corridor of the hotel. There was no one to see him. His forehead was knit, his nostrils distended, his jaws clinched. A man, whom he knew, came from a side passage. Instantly Vinal's face was calm again, and as the other passed he greeted him with a smile. He went out into the main street of the town, along which he walked for a few rods with his usual air of alert composure; then turned down a narrow and unfrequented by-way. Here his whole bearing changed. He trod the gravelled sidewalk with a fierce, nervous motion; and with hands clinched and eyes fixed on the ground, muttered through his set teeth,-- "Fair or foul, by G--, I'll be even with him." CHAPTER XXV. O, quha is this has done this deed, This ill deed done to me? To send me out this time o' the zeir, To sail upon the sea.--_Percy Reliques_. A slave whose gall coins slanders like a mint. _Troilus and Cressida_. "Your proposal flatters me, Mr. Morton; and, in many points of view, the connection you offer would be a desirable one,--a very desirable one. But I must say to you plainly, that if my wishes alone were consulted, my daughter would bestow her hand elsewhere. Perhaps I need not tell you that Horace Vinal, who was my ward, and my late wife's relation, and who has been my partner in business for a year or more, is a young man whom I have looked upon as my son, and whom it was my very earnest hope to have seen such in reality. You who have had an opportunity of knowing him can hardly be surprised that, after so long an intimacy, I should prefer this connection to any other. I have seen him in all the relations of life, and the more I have seen the more I have learned to esteem him." "You speak with a good deal of emphasis of his character. May I ask if any part of your objection to me rests on that score." "In a matter like this, I am bound to be frank with you. In many quarters, I hear you very highly spoken of,--so highly, in fact, that I am disposed to take with every qualification what I have heard to your disadvantage." "Pray, what is that?" "I was a soldier once, and don't incline to inquire too closely into the way young men may see fit to amuse themselves. But on a point where my daughter's happiness might be involved----" "Upon my word, sir, I don't understand you." "Well, Mr. Morton, I hear--that is, I have learned--that, like other young men of leisure, you have had your _bonnes fortunes_, and winged other game than partridges and woodcock."