"Vile woman!" he exclaimed, starting to his feet. "Have you then been making a scoff and jest—a play-thing and a tool of me? Better for you had you raised a fiend than tampered with me thus. How know I that you do not lie, even now, woman-devil? One word for all!—by your eternal hope, who is it that you do love?"
"On my knees—Luke Bryant," fervently said Kathleen.
"Then wo to ye both!" cried Mark, casting her rudely from him, and, with a look of intense hate, rushing from the cottage.
There was a perfect tempest of rage in Mark's breast, as he quitted Kathleen; plans of revenge, deadly and horrible, suggested themselves to him, and he nursed the devilish feeling within his heart until every humanizing thought was swallowed up in the anticipation of a sweeping revenge. On reaching the village, his first care was to find Luke; upon seeing him, he started as though a serpent stood in his path.
"Keep away from me, Mark Dermot," he sternly exclaimed. "If you are come to triumph in your success, be careful, for there may be danger in it."
"Luke," replied the other, in a sad tone, "we are rivals no longer. Nay, listen, I bring you good news, there are not many who would have done this; but what care I now—the fact is, like a sensible man, I am come to proclaim my own failure. Kathleen has refused me."
"She has?"
"As true as I'm alive—rejected me for you, Luke. Nay, as good as told me that she merely flirted with me to fix your chains the tighter. Cunning little devil—eh, Luke? Come, you'll shake hands with me now, I know."
"If I could believe you, Mark," said Luke, the joy dancing in his very eyes.
"I tell you she acknowledged to me that she never could love any one but you. Now am I not a generous rival, to carry his mistress's love to another? She requested me to ask you to call in this morning, if you would have conclusive proof of her sincerity, and you would then find that she could never use you so again. But now 'tis getting late, and as I have delivered my message, I shall leave you to dream of Kathleen and happiness. Good night—be sure and see her in the morning;" and they parted.