‘He answered: “If now, at this stage, you decline to join me, I would see both you and Juana dead before I allowed you to marry.”
‘His manner was ferocious. I could see that he was absolutely absorbed—that his whole moral being was cankered by this life-long idea of a mysterious revenge. And though I did not allow him to guess the fact, I was annoyed at his attempt to intimidate me. I am not to be intimidated.
‘I said: “I will think it over, and give you my answer shortly.”
‘I saw Juana privately, told her that her father had not given me a definite answer, and returned to London in order that I might think the matter over with the more calmness. In the same house with that angelic presence it was impossible for me to think at all. I deem it right to state that I believed—and still believe—that Mr. Craig was telling me the truth, and that he was of sound mind. I truly believed—and still believe—that some man, the object of Mr. Craig’s hate, had deeply wronged Juana, her sister and her mother, and that Mr. Craig was animated in all that he did by a lofty conception of human justice. I guessed, further, that there was probably no means by which Mr. Craig could bring this man, whoever he might be, before the tribunals of the law (how many crimes slip through the wide meshes of the law!), and that therefore he had no alternative but a private vengeance. The idea of vengeance on behalf of Juana—that beloved being—appealed strongly to my deepest feelings.
‘Nevertheless, on mature consideration, I felt that I could not become a party to Mr. Craig’s scheme. I have always tried to live an honest life, and I have never accepted the sophism that the end justifies the means. In three days I returned to the house near Dunstable and told Mr. Craig my decision. He was enraged.
‘He said: “Then you prefer to give up Juana?”
‘I said: “Do you think you are acting fairly in insisting that no man shall be Juana’s husband unless he consents to commit a crime against the law?”
‘He said: “Bosh!”
‘Before such an argument I was dumb. I saw more and more clearly that Mr. Craig was what is called a monomaniac, and a very determined and obdurate one.
‘After further and useless words, I left him and sought Juana.