That Kate should marry such a man! The same
moment he stood in the light of the lantern, with one word on his lips:
"Liar!"
Beauchamp's hand sprang to the hilt of his dirk. Alec laughed with
bitter contempt.
"Pooh!" he said; "even you will not say I am a coward. Do if you dare!"
After her first startled cry, Kate had stood staring and trembling.
Beauchamp's presence of mind returned. He thrust his half-drawn dirk
into its sheath, and with a curl of the scarred lip, said coldly--
"Eaves-dropping."
"Lying," retorted Alec.
"Well, I must say," returned Beauchamp, assuming his most polished
tone, "that this kind of conversation is at least unusual in the
presence of a lady."
Without making him any reply, Alec turned to Kate.
"Kate," he said, "I swear to you that I struck him only after fair
warning, after insult to myself, and insult to the dead. He did not
know that I was able to give him the chastisement he deserved."
I doubt if Kate heard any of this speech. She had been leaning against
a book-case, and from it she now slipped sideways to the floor.
"You brute!" said Beauchamp. "You will answer to me for this."
"When you please," returned Alec.
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