"Lord Clive!" she exclaimed, in a startled voice.
"Yes, I take up your quarrel," he said, sternly, and with a deep glow on his handsome cheek. "I, your brother, will avenge the wrong that has been done you! I will not let an hour pass ere I seek him, the cowardly betrayer of innocence! Quick, tell me his name, his home!"
As he held her little hand he felt a quick shudder run through her frame, and she gasped in horror:
"Oh, my God! you would murder him!"
"Yes, like a dog!" the young earl exclaimed, bitterly. "What, shall the earth be cumbered longer with such a wretch? His name, my unhappy sister!"
"No, no!" she answered, with a shudder, and her blue eyes sought Jewel's, that had suddenly grown wild and terrified.
All at once the vindictive girl had realized that the vengeance she was taking on unhappy Flower was beginning to recoil upon her own head.
"Revenge is a naked sword—
It hath neither hilt nor guard.
Wouldst thou wield this brand of the Lord?
Is thy grasp, then, firm and hard?
"But the closer thy clutch of the blade.
The deadlier blow thou wouldst deal,
Deeper wound in thy hand is made,
It is thy blood reddens the steel.