`It is all nonsense, Helen--a jest, a mere nothing--not worth a thought. Will you never learn?' he continued, more boldly, `that you have nothing to fear from me? that I love you wholly and entirely?--or if,' he added, with a lurking smile, `I ever give a thought to another, you may well spare it, for those fancies are here and gone like a flash of lightning, while my love for you burns on steadily, and for ever like the sun. You little exorbitant tyrant, will not that--'

`Be quiet a moment, will you, Arthur,' said I, `and listen to me--and don't think I'm in a jealous fury: I am perfectly calm. Feel my hand.' And I gravely extended it towards him--but closed it upon his with an energy that seemed to disprove the assertion, and made him smile. `You needn't smile, sir,' said I, still tightening my grasp, and looking steadfastly on him till he almost quailed before me. `You may think it all very fine, Mr Huntingdon, to amuse yourself with rousing my jealousy; but take care you don't rouse my hate instead. And when you have once extinguished my love, you will find it no easy matter to kindle it again.'

`Well, Helen, I won't repeat the offence. But I meant nothing by it, I assure you. I had taken too much wine, and I was scarcely myself, at the time.'

`You often take too much;--and that is another practice I detest.' He looked up astonished at my warmth. `Yes,' I continued. `I never mentioned it before, because I was ashamed to do so; but now I'll tell you that it distresses me, and may disgust me, if you go on and suffer the habit to grow upon you, as it will, if you don't check it in time. But the whole system of your conduct to Lady Lowborough is not referable to wine; and this night you knew perfectly well what you were doing.'

`Well, I'm sorry for it,' replied he, with more of sulkiness than contrition: `what more would you have?'

`You are sorry that I saw you, no doubt,' I answered, coldly.

`If you had not seen me,' he muttered, fixing his eyes on the carpet, `it would have done no harm.'

My heart felt ready to burst; but I resolutely swallowed back my emotion, and answered calmly, `You think not?'

`No,' replied he, boldly. `After all, what have I done? It's nothing--except as you choose to make it a subject of accusation and distress.'

`What would Lord Lowborough, your friend, think, if he knew all? or what would you yourself think, if he or any other bad acted the same part to me, throughout, as you have to Annabella?'

`I would blow his brains out.'

`Well then, Arthur, how can you call it nothing--an offence for which you would think yourself justified in blowing another man's brains out? Is it nothing to trifle with your friend's feelings and mine--to endeavour to steal a woman's affections from her husband--what he values more than his gold, and therefore what it is more dishonest to take? Are the marriage vows a jest; and is it nothing to make it your sport to break them, and to tempt another to do the same? Can I love a man that does such things, and coolly maintains it is nothing?'

`You are breaking your marriage vows yourself,' said he, indignantly rising and pacing to and fro. `You promised to honour and obey me, and now you attempt to hector over me, and threaten and accuse me and call me worse than a highwayman, If it were not for your situation, Helen, I would not submit to it so tamely. I won't be dictated to by a woman, though she be my wife.'

`What will you do then? Will you go on till I hate you; and then accuse me of breaking my vows?'

He was silent a moment, and then replied,--`You never will hate me.' Returning and resuming his former position at my feet, he repeated more vehemently--`You cannot hate me, as long as I love you.'