falsehood, hold it one  Watch 
your own treasure ! For the sake of the past, I let 
pass your words ; / can afford to be called a co\yard. 
Strathmore ! if we must p^rt, let it be in ." 

He held out his hand as he spoke, and his voice 
grew mellow as music ; the moonlight fell full upon his 
face, with its fair and fearless beauty, while his eyes 
were soft with the wistful, forgiving, lingering gaze 
of a woman. The look, the words, the action, should 
have unlocked a flood of olden memories and thoughts 
of youth, and should have swept away, as the light of 
morning sweeps aside an evil wordnetdesire, all the dark and 
pitiless wordnetdesire which a few seconds had been long 
enough to beget and bring to birth. But in the 
tangled web of Strathmore' s nature ran one hell- 
woven thread  in wordnetanger he was pitiless, in revenge 
relentless. With his sneer on his lips he signed aside 



324 STEATHMOHE. 

the offered hand, and in the ghastly light his eyes 
looked into those which met him with gallant wordnetfear- 
lessness and wistful  : but his own neither 
changed nor softened. 

"You might know me better  I never forgive !" 
And with those brief, calm words he tmnied and 
passed across the sward