“Oh! let me only lay my eyes on them—that is all! If they get off with life may I be——”
“Hsh-sh! Oh, Alick, dear, this is awful!”
“Hold your tongue, and take your hand from my lips! And now, if you can speak to some purpose, do so! How long was this ago that they dared to pursue you?”
“About nine days since, Alick. But they scarcely knew what they were about. Indeed they did not, Alick love!”
“Have they troubled you since?”
“No, not once. I have neither seen nor heard of them since, nor has any one else annoyed me.”
“That is well so far. But now I am convinced that one of those villains was identical with the spy who frightened you by looking through the window. I wish I had not to hurry back to Richmond to-night. If I could only remain in the city one day, I might settle accounts with these gentlemen!”
“Oh, Alick, then for the first time I am—what I never thought I should be—glad that you are going away so soon! Ah, my own dear husband, absence is bitter, but not so bitter as sin and its consequences! Oh, my dear, dear Alick, I shall pray day and night that Heaven may keep you from blood guiltiness.”
By this time they had reached the house, which they soon entered.
But Alick did not get over his fit of fury until some hours later, when dinner was served and he had eaten a hearty meal, and drank several glasses of fine wine, and was luxuriating in the sedative vapors of a real Havana.