and had desired him to express his displeasure. He concluded by
observing, "I consider this to be the most serious false step which you
have hitherto made. Because you have been a party to deceiving the
public, and because one individual, who had no objection to be intimate
with a young man of fashion, station, and affluence, does not wish to
continue the acquaintance with one of unknown birth and no fortune, you
consider yourself justified in taking his life. Upon this principle, all
society is at an end, all distinctions levelled, and the rule of the
gladiator will only be overthrown by the stiletto of the assassin."

I was but ill prepared to receive this letter. I had been deeply thinking
upon the kind offers of Lord Windermear, and had felt that they would
interfere with the _primum mobile_ of my existence, and I was reflecting
by what means I could evade their kind intentions, and be at liberty to
follow my own inclinations, when this note arrived. To me it appeared to
be the height of injustice. I had been arraigned and found guilty upon
an _ex parte_ statement. I forgot, at the time, that it was my duty to
have immediately proceeded to Mr Masterton, and have fully explained
the facts of the case; and that, by not having so done, I left the
natural impression that I had no defence to offer. I forgot all this,
still I was myself to blame--I only saw that the letter in itself was
unkind and unjust--and my feelings were those of resentment. What right
have Lord Windermear and Mr Masterton thus to school and to insult me?
The right of obligations conferred. But is not Lord Windermear under
obligations to me? Have I not preserved his secret? Yes; but how did I
obtain possession of it? By so doing, I was only making reparation for
an act of treachery. Well, then, at all events, I have a right to be
independent of them, if I please--any one has a right to assert his
independence if he chooses. Their offers of service only would shackle
me, if I accepted of their assistance. I will have none of them. Such
were my reflections; and the reader must perceive that I was influenced
by a state of morbid irritability--a sense of abandonment which
prostrated me. I felt that I was an isolated being without a tie in the
whole world. I determined to spurn the world as it had spurned me. To
Timothy I would hardly speak a word. I lay with an aching head, aching
from increased circulation. I was mad, or nearly so. I opened the case
of p