"I know it; tell me then what measure of guilt you attach to me in the transaction I have noticed to you."
"It seems then to me that, not contemplating the man's murder, you cannot be accused of the act, although a set of fortuitous circumstances made you appear an accomplice to its commission."
"You think I may be acquitted?"
"You can acquit yourself, knowing that you did not contemplate the murder."
"I did not contemplate it. I know not what desperate deed I should have stopped short at then, in the height of my distress, but I neither contemplated taking that man's life, nor did I strike the blow which sent him from existence."
"There is even some excuse as regards the higher crime for Marmaduke Bannerworth."
"Think you so?"
"Yes; he thought that you were killed, and impulsively he might have struck the blow that made him a murderer."
"Be it so. I am willing, extremely willing that anything should occur that should remove the odium of guilt from any man. Be it so, I say, with all my heart; but now, Charles Holland, I feel that we must meet again ere I can tell you all; but in the meantime let Flora Bannerworth rest in peace—she need dread nothing from me. Avarice and revenge, the two passions which found a home in my heart, are now stifled for ever."
"Revenge! did you say revenge?"