At that moment the man, who had been observing her for some moments, looked at her with a sardonic smile, lifted his hat, bowed deeply, and murmuring familiarly: "Good-evening, Queenie," passed insolently on. Captain Ernscliffe grew ashen white. Something like an imprecation was smothered between his firmly-cut lips. "Good Heaven, Queenie!" he exclaimed. "Is it possible that you know that man?" She did not speak, she could not. She only stared at him speechlessly, her lips parted in terror, her breath coming and going in quick gasps like one dying. "Do you know who and what that man is?" he reiterated, hoarsely. "Queenie, it is Leon Vinton, the most notorious gambler and _roue_ in the city! And he dared to speak to _you_! What did he mean by it? You surely do not know him. Tell me?" Still she did not speak. It seemed to her that her tongue clove to the roof of her mouth. She had thought that her enemy was dead--had she not seen him lying cold and still, with his heart's blood staining the snowy earth? Yet there he walked, smiling, evil, triumphant. The horror of the sight struck her dumb. "You will not answer me," passionately cried her husband. "Very well. I will wring the truth from that insolent villain! I will know why he dared bow and speak to _my_ wife. Drive on home, madam; I will follow the villain and make him retract the insult!" He sprang from the moving phaeton at the imminent risk of his neck, and followed Leon Vinton with a quick stride down the road. Like one in a fearful dream, Queenie gathered the reins in her trembling hands and drove recklessly homeward through the beautiful sunshine. CHAPTER XXXVI. The angry husband followed Leon Vinton's leisurely steps, and quickly overtook him. Placing one hand on the villain's shoulder with a grasp like steel, Captain Ernscliffe whirled him round face to face. A malevolent sneer curved the lips of the handsome scoundrel as he recognized his assailant. He tried to shake himself free from that painfully tight grasp, but it was useless. He seemed to be held in a vise. "Unhand me, sir," he said, in a voice of angry expostulation. "Villain!" exclaimed Captain Ernscliffe, in a low, deep voice of concentrated passion. "How dared you speak to my wife? Apologize immediately for the insult." Leon Vinton's face assumed a blank stare of astonishment. "Does _she_ consider it an insult to be recognized by an old friend?" he inquired, in a voice of mocking courtesy. Captain Ernscliffe's brow grew as dark as night. He shook the sneering scoundrel by the shoulder as though he would have shaken the life out of him. "How dare you claim her as an old friend?" he thundered. "You whose acquaintance is a disgrace to any woman. You, the most notorious and unprincipled villain in the city. Retract those words before I kill you."