'What about Selly? How is she?'
'Lord bless you, Frank! is this you? How did you get here?'
'How is Selma! Tell me!'
'Safe and well—in Mobile with Joe.'
'Thank God! thank God for that!'
'How did you get here?'
'By the Africa; she's below. I managed to get up by a small boat. I couldn't wait.'
'Well, go up stairs. Your mother is in the library.'
After the first greeting had passed between Kate and the newcomer, he plied me with questions in regard to Selma, I told him all, keeping nothing back. Meanwhile, he walked the room, struggling with contending emotions—now joy, now rage, now grief. He said nothing till I mentioned Hallet's connection with the affair; then he spoke, and his words came like the rushing of the tornado when it mows down the trees.
'That is the one thing too much. I have held back till now. Now he dies!'