"Then I am the first to cancel that bond. From this night I cease to be your partner."
"So be it!" replied Augustus. "It is not for me to object to such a proposal, but have a care, Mortimer, and remember that by such a proceeding you lose half your estate."
"I shall have enough left to enable me to live far from a country which I henceforth renounce. As to your sister, you can tell her that I restore her her liberty."
"That is needless," answered Augustus, haughtily, "for she herself has declared her intention of breaking with you for ever."
"How?"
"She has presumed to fall in love with Mr. Gilbert Margrave, the gentleman who prefers an Octoroon to the heiress of one of the proudest families in Louisiana."
"It was jealousy, then, that prompted her denunciation of Cora Leslie," said Mortimer.
"It was."
"So much the better for her. That, at least, is some excuse for her conduct. Hush! Here they come."
Bill Bowen and the mulatto appeared, as Percy spoke, carrying between them the prostrate form of Gilbert Margrave. The young man was quite unconscious, the breast of his shirt dyed crimson by the blood which welled from his wound. Toby and Bowen placed him upon the rocky seat which had been occupied by Cora.