The glass told him that his lips were parched, and as white as his face. He bit them sharply to redden them.
“It would not be difficult to incite that fellow to go out with me,” he muttered. “I could put a bullet in his heart at fourteen paces, to a dead certainty.”
He paused for a moment, reflectively; then added—“Pshaw! it would not do to go out with him; I should raise him—insulting vagabond—to my level. No; I’ll ruin him here, and that promptly. The girl is mine! thank the stars! that is settled. It is very clear that Mires bears towards him a mortal hatred. Together we will get up a little plot to blast him in the favour of Wilton; and my skill in exercising an influence over a woman is mean indeed, if I cannot make the simple, single-minded, pretty Flora despise him. Hum! let me see. I will seek out Mires at once, and with his aid fling the scoundrel a harder back-fall than ever he has sustained in his life. When he is disposed of, I must turn my attention to my friend Mires. I don’t like that fellow’s visage. I don’t like his scowl. I must be careful how I handle him; but as for my friend, the pin-maker,’” he concluded with gnashing teeth, “he shall be tossed into a horse-pond before he leaves this, with the pretty Flora as a spectator, looking on and enjoying the sport.”
He cast a glance towards the terrace, but did not observe the object of his spite and envy; he then quitted the room, and proceeded to that of Colonel Mires, where a servant had informed him that he would find him.
He tapped lightly at the door, and entered the chamber. He beheld Colonel Mires leaning forward upon the edge of his chamber-window; yet in such a mariner as to avoid observation, and that he was gazing eagerly down upon the terrace beneath.
His curiosity being aroused, he moved with a noiseless step to Mires’s shoulder, and peered over it. The Colonel’s attention was so riveted upon some object, that he did not perceive his unexpected visitor, and the latter beheld on the terrace young Vivian, who appeared to be somewhat closely examining a particular spot. Presently he stooped down, picked up something, and put it in his pocket. Colonel Mires uttered an oath, as he witnessed the act, and the next moment, stepping back, he came in contact with Vane.
He gazed upon him fiercely, and said—
“How, sir? What is the meaning of this strange intrusion upon my privacy?”
“Your pardon, Colonel!” exclaimed Lester Vane with a quiet smile and a shrug of the shoulders. “I wish to have a few words in private with you, and sought you with that purpose. I knocked at your door, and imagined that I heard your voice bidding me enter. I came, in fact, to confer with you respecting the individual who has this morning obtruded himself in this house. I observed that you did not welcome him with any indication of delight; and as I regard his advent as an infliction and a nuisance, it struck me that together we might rid ourselves and the house of a common enemy by some little arrangement concerted for that purpose.”
Mires listened coldly. He by no means jumped at the proposition, but he motioned Vane to be seated, and they sat down to confer.