"I have broken her heart!" he cried. "I have broken that
true, devoted heart!"
The appearance of Victor Carrington was the signal for such a burst of
rage as even his iron nature could scarcely brook unshaken.
"Miscreant! devil! incarnate iniquity!" cried Douglas, as he grasped
and grappled with the baffled plotter. "You have tried to murder me--
and you have tried to murder her! I might have forgiven you the first
crime--I will drag you to the halter for the second, and think myself
poorly revenged when I hear the rabble yelling beneath your scaffold!"
Happily for Carrington, the effects of the poison had reduced his
victim to extreme weakness. The convulsive grasp loosened, the hoarse
voice died into a whisper, and Douglas Dale swooned as helplessly as a
woman.
"What does it mean?" asked Victor. "Is this man mad?"
"We have all been mad!" returned Miss Brewer, passionately. "The blind,
besotted dupes of your demoniac wickedness! Paulina Durski is dead!"
"Dead!"
"Yes. There was a quarrel, yesterday, between these two--and he left
her. I found her this morning--dead! I have told him all--the part I
have played at your bidding. I shall tell it again in a court of
justice, I pray God!"
"You can tell it when and where you please," replied Victor, with
horrible calmness. "I shall not be there to hear it."
He walked out of the house.
Pages:
716
717
718
719
720
721
722
723
724
725
726
727
728
729
730
731
732
733
734
735
736
737
738
739
740