and had so insulted her that no feeling of
amity between them was any longer possible. He had nothing now but
himself and that five hundred pounds, which he still held in his
pocket. What should he do with himself and his money? He thought
over it all with outer calmness for awhile, as he sat there in his
arm-chair.

From the moment in which he had first become convinced that the
election would go against him, and that he was therefore ruined on
all sides, he had resolved that he would be calm amidst his ruin.
Sometimes he assumed a little smile, as though he were laughing at
his own position. Mr Bott's day of rejection had come before his own,
and he had written to Mr Bott a drolling note of consolation and mock
sympathy. He had shaken hands with Mr Scruby, and had poked his fun
at the agent, bidding him be sure to send in his little bill soon. To
all who accosted him, he replied in a subrisive tone; and he bantered
Calder Jones, whose seat was quite sure, till Calder Jones began to
have fears that were quite unnecessary. And now, as he sat himself
down, intending to come to some final decision as to what he would
do, he maintained the same calmness. He smiled in the same way,
though there was no one there to see the smile. He laughed even
audibly once or twice, as he vainly endeavoured to persuade himself
that he was able to regard the world and all that belonged to it as a
bubble.

There came to him a moment in which he laughed out very audibly. "Ha!
ha!" he shouted, rising up from his chair, and he walked about the
room, holding a large paper-knife in his hand. "Ha! ha!" Then he
threw the knife away from him, and thrusting his hands into his
trousers-pockets, laughed again--"Ha! ha!" He stood still in the
centre of the room, and the laughter was very plainly visible on his
face, had there been anybody there to see it.

But suddenly there was a change upon his face, as he stood there all
alone, and his eyes became fierce, and the cicatrice that marred
his countenance grew to be red and ghastly, and he grinned with his
teeth, and he clenched his fists as he still held them within his
pockets. "Curse him!" he said out loud. "Curse him, now and for
ever!" He had broken down in his calmness, when he thought of that
old man who had opposed him during his life, and had ruined him at
his death. "May all the evils which the dead can feel cling to him
for ever and ever!" His laughter was all gone, and his assumed
tranqu