Argosy, Vol. 1 (December 9, 1882) — page 91: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

84 THE ARGOGY. “I bring you the worst of news. The prince is dead; and your highness 1s master in his stead.” ‘“ Dead!” I cried in the profoundest astonishment. ‘ He was stricken this morning, and lay dying when we entered the castle. And he was dead before your highness could be summoned.” A protest leaped to my lips. But I did not give it utterance. The thought of the girl I had seen, the Countess Minna, left helpless in the power of that consummate villain, Von Nauheim, silenced me. I would wait until at least I had had time to think out a course of action. Cuaprer III.—“ As Your HIcHNEss WILL.” THE perplexing difficulty of my position was extreme. The eyes of both men were fixed on me, waiting upon my slightest word, and eager to show their allegiance to me as the new head of the house. A career of magnificent promise lay invitingly at my very feet, and I had but to utter a word to step into a position of power and influence. Moreover, every chivalrous instinct of my nature was stirred with a desire ta save the beautiful girl I had seen from the clutches of the man threatening her with worse than ruin; while my red hot desire for revenge on the man himself was prompting me to stay where I was until at least I could expose and punish him. | His sin against me had been the one absolutely unforgivable. He had niarried my sister; and too late we had discovered that at the time he was already married. The blow and the shame had killed her and broken my mother’s heart; and over my sister’s coffin I had sworn to have his life for hers. But he had fled, and no efforts of mine had been able to find him up to the hour of my own supposed death. And now here he was, delivered into my hands and actually in the very act of repeating his foul offense. Fate had surely brought us together in this dramatic fashion. I could not disclose my identity to him; but I could be the agent to detect this new sin and could thus myself punish him for the old. With my pulses throbbing with this fire, was it likely that I could make an instant decision in accordance with the dictates of mere surface conven- tionality? I held back from the decision, and even then might have persisted in avowing the truth, when the man himself came ruffling into the zoom. His strong, dark, coarse features wore an expression of bullying assertive- ness; his manner was that of the lord of the place toward an interloper; and he spoke to me in the hectoring tone of a master toward an inferior servant. The personal contact with him, the-sound of his voice, the insolent look of his heavy eyes, and my old hate of him, were like so many knots on a whip- lash goading me to fury. ‘“T heard you had come, but I suppose you know your errand is a fruitless one.” Had I been the most contemptible lickspittle on the meanest and greediest quest his expression could not have been worse. I saw the other two men exchange a rapid glance. “What do you deem my errand?” I asked quietly. ecomilEclooolks (GO)