His lips were white, and his eyes blazed as he opened the clock-case and took there from a revolver.
‘Mr. Craig,’ said Richard, ‘may I beg you to remain calm?’
‘I am entirely calm, sir. Teresa, you have never heard your mother’s story. It is the remembrance of that story which makes me firm now. Some day you shall hear it. You may think me mad, but I am not so. You may think me of uncertain temper, mysterious, secretive, a bully, perhaps a criminal. Well, you must think those things; but when you know all, if ever you do know all, you will forgive all.’ His voice softened a little, and then grew firm again. ‘In the meantime, you shall marry Mr. Redgrave. You have visited his room at an unconscionable hour; he has visited this house at an hour still more unconscionable, and there is only one alternative to marriage. I am quite serious when I say that I would sooner see you dead than that you should remain single after this episode. I have seen what I have seen. I know your blood. I know what darkened my life, and darkened your mother’s life, and finally killed her.’
‘You threaten——’ Teresa began.
‘Stop, Teresa!’ Richard exclaimed masterfully, and turning to Raphael Craig: ‘Mr. Craig, nothing will suit me better. I have the honour to ask your daughter’s hand.’
Teresa started violently.
‘As Teresa’s father,’ said Craig solemnly, ‘I give her to you. May she prove a worthy wife!’