"After repetition of phrases, 'buried from my sight,' 'and trodden down with stones,' Paul hesitated, as if pondering the improbability of such fate to his victims' mortal remains; then broke out in a hysterical laugh.
"I was eager, and prompted:
"'And years have rotted off his flesh,'
"Paul turned, facing that way, uttered terrible curses, gave a crazed yell of fear, and stood staring into vacancy, when in deep gutturals I repeated:
"'The world shall see his bones.'
"At this Paul staggered, made wild thrusts with his dagger in direction whence came these promptings, and then fled.
"On the next train, watched by that assistant, Paul returned to London.
"Uncle Thomas and I saw you with Esther rowing upon the lake. This was just after Paul's flight. Until then we did not know of your return from Calcutta.
"I felt a growing interest in Paul's Thames tableaus. One night Uncle Thomas allowed me to watch with him along the river-bank. Paul takes his usual row up the Thames. We are hiding in some shrubbery beyond the rustic seat. Paul's boat arrives opposite that point in the river, and he repeats former performances.
"After steadying the boat with an oar, holding in set teeth that gleaming dagger, moving back and forth across the river, peering over at watery reflections, and making savage thrusts, Paul is again seated, drifting down the stream.