t I kick you up!"

"Ha! You are ready to fight me now, my worthy Viscount! But not in
your costermonger fashion. You cannot, because I have your promise.
You see I have taken your measure with some accuracy, and hard words
will not move me. I mean you to understand the issue clearly. Either
you meet me under conditions that will insure a clear field for the
survivor, or I devote myself to spreading in every quarter most likely
to prove damaging to Miss Vanrenen the full, though, perhaps, untrue,
but none the less fascinating story of her boating excursion on the
Wye at midnight."

He did then spring to his feet, for Medenham was advancing on him
with obvious intent to stifle the monstrous accusation by force.

"No! No! you will achieve nothing by violence," he shouted. "You are
not so much my physical superior that I cannot defend myself until
assistance arrives, and I will ask you to consider what manner of
gloss will be placed upon your actions if I drag you before a
magistrate for an assault. Why, man, you are absolutely at my mercy.
You yourself would be my best witness. Ah, _touche_! You felt the
point that time. _Que diable!_ I gave you credit for a quicker wit,
but it is gratifying to learn that you are beginning at last to
see that I am in deadly earnest. When I strike there is nothing
half-hearted behind my blow; I swear to you that I shall neither
relent nor draw back. If ruin overwhelm me, Cynthia Vanrenen shall be
involved in my downfall. Picture to yourself the smiles, the whispers,
the half-spoken scandal that will cling to her through life. Who will
believe her when she says that she was ignorant of your rank when she
started out from London? The incomparable Cynthia and the naughty
Viscount, touring their thousand miles through England with Mrs. Devar
as a shield of innocence!... Mrs. Devar!... Can't you hear the long
and loud guffaw that would convulse society as soon as _her_ name
cropped up? Ah, you are writhing under the lash now, I fancy! It is
dawning on you that a peril greater than the sword or bullet may be
near. Dozens of people in Paris and London know, or guess, at any
rate, that I was Cynthia Vanrenen's suitor, but as many hundreds as
there were dozens shall be told that I cast her off because of
the taint placed on her by your silly masquerading. You have no
escape--you have no answer--your marriage will only serve to confirm
my words. Do you hear? I shall say.... But you know what I sha