Red Pottage

two and two ye must

ARD KI

merging from the influence of morphia, who feels his racked body still painlessly afloat on a sea of rest, but is conscious that it is drifting back to the bitter sh

ground — a background darker surely than that of the summer night. He rememb

on which those who have misused them rarely escape. And then another remembrance, whi

wn the sho

tly, and then fel

” he said in

his dreadful nightmare would pass, w

ssly with a cup of coffee a

the man had gone he put out his shak

e whitened to despair, as a twilight meadow whitens beneath the evening frost. H

in the study. His hand had been forced. He had been thrust into a vile position. He ought to have refused to draw. He did not agree to draw. Nevertheless he had drawn. And Hugh knew that if it ha

ud. And yet to die by his own hand within five

to it,” he sai

iction that if Lord Newhaven had drawn the short lighter he would have carried out the agreement to the letter. Whether it w

imself, the cold sweat breaking on his forehead. “I

mind to regard

d to draw, and would have knocked Lord Newhaven down and half killed him, or would have been knocked down and half killed by him. But to tacitly accept a means by which the injured man risked his lif

to himself over and over agai

said “I will get out.” The way of retreat had been open behind

g, the feathers on its breast worn

in contact with the bars which he was to know so well, t

e wide expanse of meadow and waving wood and distant hill which has met his eye every morning of his life, and finds it — gone. It was incredible

mo

his own hand it would break her heart. Hugh groaned and thrust

ous judgment on him was out of all proportion to his offence. And like some malignant infectious disease retribution wo

red welled up in his heart against Lady Newhaven. She had lured him to his destruction. She had tempted him

n seized him. No doubt it was the first of a series. “Why was he so altered? What had she done to offend him?” &c. &c. He knew the contents before

t random to leave a woman. It did not occur to him that Lady Newhaven might have written to him about his encounter with her husband. He

elf; “and as for her, I will brea

hing twirly handwriting persisted

London. But Lord Newhaven would hear of his departure, and would smile. He decided to remain and to go on as if nothing had happened. When