"'Where the deuce is the dear girl?' he said, and his eyes fell upon me.
"A terrible hatred rose in my heart against this man. It was the first great passion I had nurtured, and had received no other provocation than the empty sounds of his footfalls. But antipathies are not accidental merely; they are organic; and my quick sense took alarm even from his tread. One's character may be defined in his gait, but I knew from the tramp of this person that his nature was averse to mine. Why had he followed my affianced across the seas? Why had his crashing drowned the music of her steps? Why had he uttered her name with an endearment? Why had he been retained at her side, and I sent alone and wretched before? My wrists knotted nervously as these accusations took shape, and my blood became gall.
"'I beg pardon,' he said curtly; 'but are you the young man we are looking for?'
"I asked through my teeth whom he designated in the term 'we.'
"'Heraine, of course,' he replied; 'give me your hand! We have followed our little invalid—that's what we call you—over many a league, and may make his acquaintance at last. Ralph Clendenning, at your service!'
"I shrank menacingly from him, and counted the dull throbs of my heart.
"'What! timid!' he said; 'and with so old a friend? I never met you, indeed, but then I have talked of you so often that you have grown to be quite a brother.'
"I saw that he was frank and winning, and hated him the more.
"'Upon my word,' he added, 'there was none whom I had resolved in my mind to love so well, for the sake of Heraine.'
"A cry escaped me, so bitter that it seemed a howl, and I clenched my hands.