ave, as
we desire it, into a web of stately or simple harmony; but let the
meteor-like brilliancy of a woman's smile--a woman's touch--a woman's
LIE--intermingle itself with the strain, and lo! the false note is
struck, discord declares itself, and God Himself, the great Composer,
can do nothing in this life to restore the old calm tune of peaceful,
unspoiled days! So I have found; so all of you must find, long before
you and sorrow grow old together.

"A white-haired fisherman!"

The words of the king repeated themselves over and over again in my
tortured brain. Yes--I was greatly changed, I looked worn and old--no
one would recognize me for my former self. All at once, with this
thought, an idea occurred to me--a plan of vengeance, so bold, so new,
and withal so terrible, that I started from my seat as though stung by
an adder. I paced up and down restlessly, with this lurid light of
fearful revenge pouring in on every nook and cranny of my darkened
mind. From whence had come this daring scheme? What devil, or rather
what angel of retribution, had whispered it to my soul? Dimly I
wondered--but amid all my wonder I began practically to arrange the
details of my plot. I calculated every small circumstance that was
likely to occur in the process of carrying it out. My stupefied senses
became aroused from the lethargy of despair, and stood up like soldiers
on the alert armed to the teeth. Past love, pity, pardon,
patience--pooh! what were all these resources of the world's weakness
to ME? What was it to me that the bleeding Christ forgave His enemies
in death? He never loved a woman! Strength and resolution returned to
me. Let common sailors and rag-pickers resort to murder and suicide as
fit outlets for their unreasoning brute wrath when wronged; but as for
me, why should I blot my family scutcheon with a merely vulgar crime?
Nay, the vengeance of a Romani must be taken with assured calmness and
easy deliberation--no haste, no plebeian fury, no effeminate fuss, no
excitement. I walked up and down slowly, meditating on every point of
the bitter drama in which I had resolved to enact the chief part, from
the rise to the fall of the black curtain. The mists cleared from my
brain--I breathed more easily--my nerves steadied themselves by
degrees--the prospect of what I purposed doing satisfied me and calmed
the fever in my blood. I became perfectly cool and collected. I
indulged in no more futile regrets for the past--why s