A hoarse, gurgling laugh issued from the convulsed throat of Standish, and the next moment they closed in deadly combat. Both were strong and athletic men, both brave, both desperate, and for a few minutes the contest they waged was an equal one. But suddenly Hawthorne began to get the advantage. He had his foe down and his knee on his breast. "Will you take back your foul lie, hound?" he hissed, fiercely. Standish made no answer in words. He had been struggling all the while to get at his hip-pocket, and now he succeeded in drawing out a dagger and plunging it in Hawthorne's breast. There was a horrible ripping sound, and he rolled over bleeding in the snow. CHAPTER XXXV. GERALDINE'S CHOICE. "Howe'er it be, it seems to me, 'Tis only noble to be good; Kind hearts are more than coronets, And simple faith than Norman blood." TENNYSON. "Fair maiden, let me say to you, Mark well the man who comes to woo; Select the one as true as steel, With brain to think and heart to feel." FRANCIS S. SMITH. When Mrs. Fitzgerald had dismissed Standish, she returned to her daughter and recounted all that had passed. She was vastly amused at the actor's boastfulness, and said: "It is only low-bred people, 'beggars on horseback,' as the saying goes, who brag of their possessions or their expectations. Really high-toned people--and they may be high-toned even if poor--can never tolerate purse-proud vulgarity." Geraldine laughed and said: "Clifford Standish's story of his rich mother has always been his trump card in social life. I have often been secretly disgusted at hearing him tell it to new acquaintances." "He probably sets a very low estimate on his own merits when he has to resort to such silly boasting to curry favor," returned her mother, adding: "I have met people of his stamp before, and, as a rule, their statements were untruthful. I dare say, if the facts were known, the fellow's mother takes in washing or goes out scrubbing." "Thank Heaven, I am rid of him at last! I do not believe he will ever dare to cross my path again since finding out that I have such a strong defender in my noble mother," declared Geraldine, gladly, for she did not yet comprehend with what an evil nature she had to deal. Believing herself rid of Clifford Standish forever, her longing thoughts returned to the true lover from whom she had been so cruelly torn. "Oh, my love! my love! I cannot give you up," she thought, tenderly, and after a moment's hesitancy she cried: