y letters, writings, proofs of some sort."

"No, Upton, I have not left a scrap in her possession; she has not
a line, not a letter to vindicate her. On the night I broke open her
writing-desk, I took away everything that bore the traces of my own
hand. I tell you again she is in my power, and never was power less
disposed to mercy."

"Once more, my dear friend," said Upton, "I am driven to tell you that I
cannot be a profitable counsellor in a matter to every detail of which
I object. Consider calmly for one moment what you are doing. See how,
in your desire to be avenged upon _her_, you throw the heaviest share of
the penalty on your own poor boy. I am not her advocate now. I will
not say one word to mitigate the course of your anger towards her, but
remember that you are actually defrauding him of his birthright. This is
not a question where you have a choice. There is no discretionary power
left you."

"I 'll do it," said Glencore, with a savage energy.

"In other words, to wreak a vengeance upon one, you are prepared to
immolate another, not only guiltless, but who possesses every claim to
your love and affection."

"And do you think that if I sacrifice the last tie that attaches me to
life, Upton, that I retire from this contest heart-whole? No, far from
it; I go forth from the struggle broken, blasted, friendless!"

"And do you mean that this vengeance should outlive you? Suppose, for
instance, that she should survive you."

"It shall be to live on in shame, then," cried he, savagely.

"And were she to die first?"

"In that case--I have not thought well enough about that. It is
possible,--it is just possible; but these are subtleties, Upton, to
detach me from my purpose, or weaken my resolution to carry it
through. You would apply the craft of your calling to the case, and,
by suggesting emergencies, open a road to evasions. Enough for me the
present. I neither care to prejudge the future, nor control it. I know,"
cried he, suddenly, and with eyes flashing angrily as he spoke,--"I know
that if you desire to use the confidence I have reposed in you against
me, you can give me trouble and even difficulty; but I defy Sir Horace
Upton, with all his skill and all his cunning, to outwit me."

There was that in the tone in which he uttered these words, and the
exaggerated energy of his manner, that convinced Upton, Glencore's
reason was not intact. It was not what could amount to aberration in the
ordinary s