looked into his eyes--I mean when
they've got that lack-lustre expression? You can see a hundred thousand
dead men in them."

"I know the look you mean," said Lady Cressage, in a low voice.

"Not that I assume he is going to kill anybody," pursued Miss Madden,
with ostensible indifference, but fixing a glance of aroused attention
upon her companion's face, "or that he has any criminal intentions
whatever. He behaves very civilly indeed, and apparently his niece and
nephew idolize him. He seems to be the soul of kindness to them. It may
be that I'm altogether wrong about him--only I know I had the instinct
of alarm when I caught that sort of dull glaze in his eye. I met an
African explorer a year ago, or so, about whose expeditions dark stories
were told, and he had precisely that kind of eye. Perhaps it was this
that put it into my head--but I have a feeling that this Thorpe is an
exceptional sort of man, who would have the capacity in him for terrible
things, if the necessity arose for them."

"I see what you mean," the other repeated. She toyed with the
bread-crumbs about her plate, and reflectively watched their
manipulation into squares and triangles as she went on. "But may that
not be merely the visible sign of an exceptionally strong and masterful
character? And isn't it, after all, the result of circumstances whether
such a character makes, as you put it, a hundred thousand dead men, or
enriches a hundred thousand lives instead? We agree, let us say, that
this Mr. Thorpe impresses us both as a powerful sort of personality. The
question arises, How will he use his power? On that point, we look
for evidence. You see a dull glaze in his eye, and you draw hostile
conclusions from it. I reply that it may mean no more than that he is
sleepy. But, on the other hand, I bring proofs that are actively in
his favour. He is, as you say, idolized by the only two members of his
family that we have seen--persons, moreover, who have been brought up
in ways different to his own, and who would not start, therefore, with
prejudices in his favour. Beyond that, I know of two cases in which
he has behaved, or rather undertaken to behave, with really lavish
generosity--and in neither case was there any claim upon him of a
substantial nature. He seems to me, in fact, quite too much disposed
to share his fortune with Tom, Dick, and Harry--anybody who excites
his sympathy or gets into his affections." Having said this much, Lady
Cres