eginald now--but
why, and how? When a man of this nature is very frightened, he often
takes refuge in rage, and that is what Garthorne did. He turned on Sir
Arthur and Vane, his hands clenched, and his lips drawn back from his
teeth, and said, in a voice which Enid had never heard from him before:

"What does all this mean, Sir Arthur? My father murdered in his own
house; his murderer tells you that he has 'done justice,' and avenged
your honour--then poisons himself. If any wrong has been done, how did
that nigger servant of yours get to know of it? Why should he have been
let loose to murder my father? If you had anything against him, why
didn't you charge him with it yourself, as a man and gentleman should?
You must have been in it the whole lot of you or you wouldn't have been
here!

"But, perhaps," he went on, with a sudden change of tone, "you would
rather tell the police when they come; there must be some reason, I
suppose, for your bringing that woman, a common prostitute, into my
house, and into the presence of my wife."

"Oh, you fool, you hypocrite, you have asked for the punishment of your
sin, and you shall have it!"

Dora had taken a couple of strides towards him, and faced him--cheeks
blazing, and eyes flaming.

"Prostitute! yes, I was; but how do _you_ know it? Because you lived in
the same house with me. Yes, up to the very week of your wedding, with
me and that man's daughter. You have asked why he was killed. He was
killed righteously, because he wasn't fit to live. No, you didn't know
that then, and so far you are innocent; but you are guilty of a crime
nearly as great. Your father stole Carol's mother from her husband; you
stole your wife from the man she loved and would have married but for
you.

"It was _you_ who made Vane Maxwell drunk that morning at Oxford, in the
hope of wrecking his career. You didn't do that, but you gained your end
all the same, and your sin is just as great. How do I know this--how do
_we_ know it? I will tell you. Carol Vane, Mr. Maxwell's sister, _and
yours_, went to your wedding. Carol recognised him as her father. Look,
there is his photograph taken with her, when Carol was ten years old. If
you don't believe that, look at his left arm, and you will find two
spear stabs on it, and if that is not enough, I can bring police
evidence from France to prove that he committed the crime for which he
has died, and now, you--son of a seducer, libertine and thief of anothe