e insult.

"You are wrong," he replied, coolly; "she did not know it. You all did,
and reckoned on my being long-suffering and inoffensive. I saw, at last,
what Forrester had done; yet I never guessed but that she would marry
me. I trusted to her father and her own fears for keeping her straight.
After marriage I would have tried still what great love and tenderness
could do. I meant--never mind what I meant--it's all over now. I was
nearly mad for a week after their flight. Then I became quite cool, and
I said, 'I will kill him myself.' And so I did. Mind, I swear, Allan
knew nothing of it till all was done. I thought I should be brave enough
for that. Fifty times during the months that I tracked them, always
changing my disguise, I nearly caught him alone; but each time I was
balked. Wherever they went, I watched under their windows for the chance
of his coming out; but I only saw--"

He gnashed his teeth, and rolled over and over in a paroxysm of jealous
recollection. We guessed what he meant. Then he went on: "That night he
sauntered backward and forward for some time. I thought he would not go
far enough away, and I called to the devil to help me. He did; for, very
soon, Forrester walked straight down the path. I crept after him till
he had gone some hundred yards--my heart was beating so quickly that I
could hardly breathe--then I ran forward and stood before him. I had
taken off the black wig and beard that I always wore, and he knew me
directly.

"'Mr. Bruce, I believe?' he said, raising his hat, just as if he had met
me by appointment.

"'Yes,' I said. 'I have got you at last, as I wished.' I tried to speak
as steadily as he had done; but, as the moment for action came near, my
d----d cowardice made me stammer.

"'I am not invisible, as a rule,' he replied. 'You, or any friend of
yours, might have found me long ago. You have been some time making up
your mind. It's that unfortunate constitutional--caution, I suppose.
Well, I'll meet you in Rome: it's more than you deserve.'

"'You'll fight me here--now,' I said.

"'I shall do nothing half so melodramatic,' he answered. 'I'll give you
a fair chance on the ground; but, if you do not move out of my path now,
I'll shoot you as I would any other disagreeable ruffian,' and he put
his hand into his breast, where, I knew, he carried a pistol.

"I _was_ brave then. I sprang in upon him all at once. 'You may shoot
now, if you like,' I said. 'I swear I am quite u