"
"Why, then," said I, laying my card on the table, "the lady's presence
need not deter us, I think. Let us be done with the affair at once."
"Absolutely and utterly impossible, sir!" he answered, taking up my
card. "Since you desire me to kill you, I will do so with a perfect
pleasure, but at my own time and place and--" Here he paused as he
read my name, and stood a moment staring down at the pasteboard with
that same faint pucker of the brow; then he laughed suddenly and
tossed my card to Captain Danby. "Odd, Tom!" said he; then turning to
me, "Mr. Vereker, I will meet you at the very earliest moment--shall
we say five o'clock to-morrow morning? There is a small tavern called
'The Anchor' a few miles along the Maidstone road, a remote spot very
suitable for a little shooting. And now, sir, pray begone. I am
occupied, as you see--while my friends pour libations to Bacchus, I
worship at the shrine of Venus."
Here, turning very ostentatiously, he bowed to Diana, viewing her with
look so evil that I clenched my fists and made to spring at him, but
Anthony's powerful hand arrested me:
"Come away, Perry," he whispered, "you can do no more to-night. Don't
show 'em your pain--pride, man, pride! Come away, old fellow."
So I suffered him to lead me whither he would, following the impulse
of his guiding arm like a blind man, for the shadow had closed in
blacker than ever, to engulf me at last, and it seemed that my only
escape from this horror was to grasp the kindly hand of Death.
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