"Good," cried Lambert, and he laughed a peculiar wild laugh. "But this is nonsense," he resumed; "let us talk like reasonable beings. Just see what folly it is to throw away fortune, and all this"—waving his hand towards the trees and upland—"for what?—a whim, a bit of revenge! When you have destroyed me, and planted a thorn in Elsie's heart that'll pierce her through her life long—for you can do that, though she's beyond your power to harm more—how will you like to turn out of this grand place, and count every penny in your pocket?"
"I don't intend to do either; I shall be rewarded for my disinterested honesty by keeping the estate for my life. My son, a mere helpless cripple, can exist on a trifle; my lady wife is only half alive as it is, and probably may resign the frail half she possesses before long, then I may marry my sweet cousin, and all will go well and happily when we have hung you, you blundering blackguard"—with a sudden flash of rage and hatred.
"Gently," said Lambert, thinking the moment was come to play his trump card. "You'll not be able to carry out your neat little scheme. My Elsie is engaged to Glynn, and will be his wife before three weeks are over. She is staying with Lady Gethin until the wedding takes place!"
Deering was moved at last; he started back.
"What! has Glynn known your secret during——"
"The last month, and more," interrupted Lambert.
"And Lady Gethin?—is she equally well informed?"
"She is."
Deering grew deadly white; his sharp, cruel-looking teeth pressed his under lip for a moment of silence before he burst out:—"Infernal idiot! you have driven the last nail into your own coffin. Elsie, Glynn's wife! I'd strangle her with my own hands first! You have left me no alternative. I must in mere self-defence attack you. You have shattered your own safeguard! If you have told Glynn and that sharp-tongued old woman, I must not keep quiet any longer. Their credulity does not weaken my position; it is impregnable, if I have pluck enough to stand to my guns, which I have! You have left me nothing but revenge, and I'll have that. Who will believe a word you utter? I'll make your visit here the starting-point of my accusation. You have come to extract money! and threaten me with the claims of Gilbert Deering's daughter. I, having always suspected you, and having recently met Vincent and heard his story, I lay the matter before a magistrate, both to obtain and bestow justice. Then let Glynn marry the protégée of a disgraced, detected criminal if he will, nothing shall save you from appearing in Elsie's eyes as the murderer of her own father, the destroyer of her life. There! I tell you my plan; repeat it or not as you choose. Your words, your story, your very existence are in vain. I have but to be firm, and you go to a dishonored grave, followed by the horror and disgust of the creature on whom you spent your life!—ay! who, rejected by Glynn, will yet be mine."
Lambert had listened with a wild mingling of fury and despair. He gazed at Deering to see if there was any sign of faltering, of hesitation, but the leader of the rebel angels himself could not have looked more determined to "make evil his good." Contempt as well as hatred gleamed from his fierce light eyes, a sudden sense that all hope was over, that a dark cloud streaked with blood was already rising between him and his darling, his jewel, pressed with maddening force upon Lambert.