rice in
silence. Astonishment at my inflexibility was blended with his anger. By
turns he commented on the guilt and on the folly of my resolutions.
Sometimes his emotions would mount into fury, and he would approach me
in a menacing attitude, and lift his hand as if he would exterminate me
at a blow. My languid eyes, my cheeks glowing and my temples throbbing
with fever, and my total passiveness, attracted his attention and
arrested his stroke. Compassion would take the place of rage, and the
belief be revived that remonstrances and arguments would answer his
purpose.

CHAPTER XXIII.

This scene lasted I know not how long. Insensibly the passions and
reasonings of Welbeck assumed a new form. A grief, mingled with
perplexity, overspread his countenance. He ceased to contend or to
speak. His regards were withdrawn from me, on whom they had hitherto
been fixed; and, wandering or vacant, testified a conflict of mind
terrible beyond any that my young imagination had ever conceived.

For a time he appeared to be unconscious of my presence. He moved to and
fro with unequal steps, and with gesticulations that possessed a
horrible but indistinct significance. Occasionally he struggled for
breath, and his efforts were directed to remove some choking impediment.

No test of my fortitude had hitherto occurred equal to that to which it
was now subjected. The suspicion which this deportment suggested was
vague and formless. The tempest which I witnessed was the prelude of
horror. These were throes which would terminate in the birth of some
gigantic and sanguinary purpose. Did he meditate to offer a bloody
sacrifice? Was his own death or was mine to attest the magnitude of his
despair or the impetuosity of his vengeance?

Suicide was familiar to his thoughts. He had consented to live but on
one condition; that of regaining possession of this money. Should I be
justified in driving him, by my obstinate refusal, to this fatal
consummation of his crimes? Yet my fear of this catastrophe was
groundless. Hitherto he had argued and persuaded; but this method was
pursued because it was more eligible than the employment of force, or
than procrastination.

No. These were tokens that pointed to me. Some unknown instigation was
at work within him, to tear away his remnant of humanity and fit him for
the office of my murderer. I knew not how the accumulation of guilt
could contribute to his gratification or security. His actions ha