The mocking fiend who near us stands;
But some good woman-angel pleads
For mercy at Almighty hands;
With such for guide what mortal heeds
The mocking fiend who near us stands?
THE MAN WITH A SECRET.
[CHAPTER I.]
AN UNEXPECTED MEETING.
"With anxious dread have I avoided thee, Thou haunting evil of my early days, Yet by some trick of Fate we meet again; I pray thee, sir, let me go far away. And place the roaring seas between us twain, There is but sorrow in our comradeship."
It was the high road to the village of Garsworth, wide, deeply rutted, and somewhat grass-grown, with a tall hedge of yellow-blossomed gorse on the one side, and on the other a ragged, broken fence, over which leaned a man absorbed in meditation, his eyes fixed upon the setting sun.