They were here overtaken by two or three other gentlemen, and the conversation took another and less perilous turn, as they wandered down towards the mineral spring. After slaking their thirst, the party divided. Major Cabell joined the three latest comers, and Clifton and Fairfax turned towards the farm-house.
“You seem to be moody this evening, Archer,” said Frank, after they had pursued their way for some time in silence.
“Yes—that foolish jest of Cabell’s has annoyed me. It is villainous! It is diabolical! Such light words, in which a young girl’s fair fame is laughed and jested away, may be thoughtless, but they should be punished with death!”
“That’s a harsh sentence!”
“A just one!”
“You feel this bitterly!”
“I DO. For her name has been used! Frank! you believe that if a word of disrespect were to be breathed by any man against my mother, I would lay that man dead at my feet without an instant’s grace?”
“Yes! I thoroughly believe that you would send such an one to his last account in a great hurry.”
“And if any one were but to look an insult to Catherine, it would rouse all the ferocity of the demon in me to overthrow and trample him to death!”
“‘All this I steadfastly believe,’ as the catechism says about total depravity!”