"You have played for a very high stake, Lady Eversleigh," said the
surgeon; "and you must not wonder if you have found opponents ready to
encounter your play with a still more desperate, and a still more
dexterous game. When a nameless and obscure woman springs from poverty
and obscurity to rank and riches, she must expect to find others ready
to dispute the prize which she has won."
"And there can exist a wretch calling himself a man, and yet capable of
such an act as this!" cried Honoria, looking upward to the calm and
cloudless sky, as if she would have called heaven to witness the
iniquity of her enemy. "Do not speak to me, sir," she added, turning to
Victor Carrington, with unutterable scorn. "I believed a few minutes
ago that you were a madman, and I thought myself the victim of a
maniac's folly. I understand all now. You have plotted nobly for your
friend's service; and he will, no doubt, reward you richly if you
succeed. But you have not yet succeeded. Providence sometimes seems to
favour the wicked. It his favoured you, so far; but the end has not
come yet."
She turned from him and walked to the opposite side of the tower. Here
she seated herself on the battlemented wall, as calm, in outward
seeming, as if she had been in her own drawing-room. She took out a
tiny jewelled watch; by that soft light she could perceive the figures
on the dial.
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