“We wish to be alone,” said Middleton to his servant.

And these four gentlemen, so strangely connected together
by the various incidents of the past—the blood-stained,
heart-broken Glendenning; the sad, grief-worn brother, upon
whom he had caused to fall such a heavy blow; White, who
hated Middleton with all the hatred of his nature, yet who
had, till now, been unable to give vent to his feelings; and
Middleton, whose arrogant and malignant course had so
profoundly changed the destinies of all three, and who, till
now, believed himself far beyond their power.

When they were at length alone, there was a pause.
Harry's heart beat thick with the new train of thought so
suddenly awakened, and he silently drew up his tall form
and folded his arms, to gaze upon each one of those three
dark men, among whom rested the guilt of his brother's
death; for guilt, it was now evident, there had been somewhere.
As he stood, like a judge with the power to doom,
the whole subject of Frank's death appeared conjured up
again in his imagination in all its original distinctness, and
the idea of vengeance once more, like a demon, took possession
of him. His agitation was increased by the demeanour
of Glendenning, who, without any trace of the fiery,
high-tempered youth of eighteen months ago, scarcely lifted
his eyes, till, at length, as if no longer able to suppress
his emotion, he prostrated himself upon the very floor at
Harry's feet, and wept.

“Speak!” cried Harry.

“I cannot!” replied Glendenning. “I would ask forgiveness—
mercy—but I cannot, I do not, I dare not.”

[figure description] Page 141.[end figure description]

Nobody was prepared for this extremity of agony and
self-abasement. It touched both Harry and White. Down
the cheeks of the former rolled large tears, and even White
grew a shade sterner than he was on first entering.

“This is a very extraordinary scene, gentlemen,” said
Middleton.

“Where is my brother?” at length demanded Harry.

“Murdered!” said Glendenning, springing to his feet.
“Slaughtered in his young beauty, savagely, like a lamb,
by the hands of a ruffian and a butcher, but not by mine!”

“Will you allow me to light a cigar, my lord?” said
White.

Lord Middleton bowed, and led him apart to a fire-machine,
took him by the button, and was beginning to speak,
when White, who had leisurely lighted his cigar, said,

“Your lordship won't smoke?”

“No! not now. In respect to this sad affair, my dear
White—”

“It is a bad, filthy habit,” said White; “but I beg your
pardon; your lordship was saying something.”

Deep to his soul Middleton felt this disrespect, and yet
more when, as he once again commenced to speak, White
again interrupted him with,

“I beg your lordship's pardon, but I had rather say nothing
in this matter, except in the presence and with the
full understanding of my friend Glendenning.”

“Will you not, at least, be seated?”

“No, my lord, not beneath roof of yours.”

“Do you mean to insult me, Captain White?”

“And if I did?” replied White.

“You would, of course, not refuse me immediate satisfaction.”

“I should refuse you for the present, till I had fully given
my testimony in this, as your lordship just now justly termed
it, sad affair of Glendenning.”

Middleton from pale grew to paler as he detected the
design of White to drive him into a duel, which, but for
him, he might easily avoid: a duel with a man whose
skill with the pistol he had seen so fearfully displayed, and
whose lofty determination of character and fatal cause of
quarrel made him such a formidable, not to say, at once,
fatal foe. Most bitterly did he now regret the insults he
had not hesitated to heap upon White when that gentleman

[figure description] Page 142.[end figure description]

had come to him a suppliant, and borne with such cool patience
and self-government those sneers and insinuations
which, at length, brought the matter to such a terrible crisis.
They had now changed places. White had the vantage
ground. He himself (oh, galling thought!) was the suppliant.
Glendenning was the witness of his awkward position
and humble endurance of insults, while Lennox, the
brother of the Yankee lieutenant, whose life he had so recklessly
sacrificed to his own pomposity and malice, had
thrown himself upon a sofa, and sat with folded arms, pale
face, and a frowning brow, as if determined to wait patiently
the result of the present interview, and then to act as circumstances
should require.

“My lord,” said Captain White, “let us be frank. The
meeting down stairs was not accidental. I have been travelling
with Glendenning for some months. Although the
world has deserted him, I have not deserted him, because I
knew he was not to blame in the affair with Lieutenant
Lennox, and only to blame for imprudence in a very difficult
position, in the matter for which he has been court
martialed. I heard you and Mr. Lennox had arrived at the
same hotel the same day, and I agreed to dine here with
Glendenning, in the hope of meeting you. In accordance
with my hopes, we met you together at the same table, in a
friendly greeting! This is so remarkable, that it imboldens
me to ask you, would you be unwilling to join me in the
task of reconciling these two young men? Don't you think
circumstances have cut them out for bosom friends?”

“I see you mean to be impertinent,” replied Middleton.
“They must settle their own concerns. Nor shall I expose
myself any longer to your insults. I pronounce the
charges of Mr. Glendenning false. If you back them, you
are also guilty of falsehood: so I brand you, and you may
take your course.”

“That means, my lord, you prefer a meeting with me
rather than one with Mr. Lennox.”

“You are insolent, sir. If you have business with me,
you had better send a friend, who may know what is due to
the usages of gentlemen.”

“Not till this question of your agency in causing the
death of Lieutenant Lennox be settled one way or the
other. Mr. Glendenning charges you with being the cause.
I bear my testimony to the truth of the charge.”

“It is false.”

[figure description] Page 143.[end figure description]

“I waive the insult. Dare you answer me three questions?”

“I answer no questions, sir.”

Harry rose and walked up to Middleton. Deep was the
suspicion aroused within him. There is something in the
human countenance, too, which speaks more than words, and
while he read on that of Glendenning grief and truth, Middleton's
was full of guile and shuffling cowardice. Glendenning
he could have pardoned; for Middleton there was
no excuse.

“You will, perhaps, be so obliging, my lord,” said he, in
a deep, tranquil voice, “as to reply to any question which I
may put you.”

“Certainly, my dear Lennox, certainly; but these gentlemen
are both old enemies of mine, and I confess I—”

“You desired to put three questions,” interrupted Lennox,
turning to Captain White, with the utmost calmness.
“What was the first?”

“After the return of Glendenning from his first visit to
New-York, did his lordship give a ball?”

“Did you give a ball, my lord?”

“I did.”

“Did you invite Captain Glendenning?” said White.

“I did not.”

“And did his lordship never state to any one a reason for
not doing so?”

“This is a captious question of Captain White's, not your
own,” said Middleton to Lennox.

“Answer it as if it were mine, my lord,” replied Lennox,
sternly.

“I do not understand you,” said Middleton, haughtily.

“Mr. Lennox,” interrupted Glendenning, stepping up,
“hear me speak. If Lord Middleton denies the truth of
what I say, let him put his denial on paper, and I engage
to bring twenty witnesses against him.”

“Gentlemen, this is intolerable,” exclaimed Middleton.
“If I were a culprit at the bar of justice, I could scarcely
be expected to stand in a more humiliating position. I hope
you will excuse me for intimating that this apartment is a
private one, and I have not yet dined.”

“Your lordship refuses to reply to the interrogatories,
then?” demanded Harry.

“I have nothing to confess, and I no longer condescend

[figure description] Page 144.[end figure description]

to deny,” replied Middleton. “You have my warning
against the calumnies of both these gentlemen.”

“My lord, you will not leave town before I can communicate
with you?”

“Your question is insolent.”

“Captain White, Captain Glendenning, I request your
company in my room,” said Harry.