Before the young man could reply, Eveline interposed.
"You do Master Arundel wrong, sir," she said, "to charge him with aught unbecoming. He comes hither in open day, and that by my special invitation."
The eyes of the spirited girl flashed, and her cheeks were crimson, as she made the avowal.
"This from you, Eveline Dunning," exclaimed Spikeman, with ill-suppressed rage. "Have you so far forgotten the modesty of your sex as to make this declaration in public? I knew before, that this boy had bewitched you, but dreamed not that he had triumphed over all maidenly reserve."
There was something insufferably insulting, both in the tone and in the insinuation concealed in the language, which was not entirely understood by the pure mind of Eveline, but which was maddening to her lover.
"Only a base ingrate and liar," he cried, "would slander celestial purity. Master Spikeman knows that what he utters is false."
"Ha! darest thou, malapert boy," said Spikeman, advancing to Arundel with his arm raised, as if about to strike; but Waqua stepped between them. He had gravely listened to the heated conversation, and supposed he understood its purport.
"Let not the wise white man," he said, addressing Spikeman, "imitate a mad wolf in his anger. Give to my brother for his wife the girl whose cheeks are like the summer morning, for her heart has hid itself in his bosom."
The fury of Spikeman, thus bearded in his own house, was now directed to the savage. Anger appeared to have completely deprived him of reason, for turning upon the Indian with glaring eyes and exerting his strength to the utmost, he hurled him with irresistible force across the room against the wainscot, where his head struck a post, and he fell bleeding on the floor.
Waqua was instantly on his feet again, and his first motion was to clutch the tomahawk, but Arundel catching his arm, compelled him to desist from his revenge. Holding the savage by the arm, Arundel passed out of the apartment, leaving the Assistant standing as if petrified by his own violence, while Eveline, pale, yet resolute, had sunk upon a seat, and Prudence was hysterically shrieking. As soon as they stood in the street, Arundel said: