ociate, ill as I had too much reason to think of him. I could not
help agreeing with my wife, as I watched him, that I did not like his
look. There was something very evil in his expression as he watched us
proceeding towards our home, and I could no longer have any doubt that
he recognised me. I never before had seen his countenance wear so
malignant an expression, and I feared, not without reason, that even at
that moment he was plotting to do us some mischief. A picture I had
once seen was forcibly recalled to my memory. It represented Satan
watching our first parents in Paradise, and when he is envying them the
happiness he can never enjoy, he is considering how he may the most
effectually destroy it.

When we got home, we talked the matter over. I did not express my own
suspicions to my wife, as they could not fail to agitate her, but I
endeavoured rather to make light of it, and to appear as if I hoped,
should Charles Iffley feel any desire of revenge, that he would be
unable to effect it. I felt regret, also, that I had not hurried after
Iffley. Whatever were his feelings, I thought that I might perhaps have
turned his heart to better thoughts by talking of bygone days and of our
early friendship. "Well, it may not yet be too late," I thought to
myself; "I will seek him out and try to persuade him to discard those
feelings of jealousy and envy which are now influencing him." When,
however, I mentioned my intentions to Uncle Kelson, he rather laughed at
my notion.

"An idle, conceited young puppy. What business has he to interfere with
you or yours?" he exclaimed. "Because a girl, of whom he is utterly
unworthy, does not choose to have anything to say to him, is he to set
himself up and to look daggers at any man she may happen to marry? Let
him alone. Let him go his own gait, as your Aunt Bretta would say.
He'll find a rope long enough to hang himself, depend on it."

My uncle thought he was giving good advice, but even at the time I felt
that better is given elsewhere. "Therefore, if thine enemy hunger, feed
him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals
of fire on his head. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with
good." I felt that if I could have met with Iffley, I might have heaped
coals of fire on his head. I might have softened his heart, just as the
contents of a pot are melted by piling up coals, not only around it, but
on the very head or top of it.