Prince Zilah -- Volume 3

nko was at Florence! Menko, for it could be no other than he, had telegraphed to Marsa, arranging a meeting with her. That very evening he was to be in the house of Marsa Laszlo-Marsa who bor

tween a vanquished soldier and this fallen girl-Varhely, the rough, implacable Varhely, who had also been the

frenzy, Zilah returned

with her t

all the rest. How

ish

e she thought herself so safe, was his by law. He, the husband, had a right

hat it imposes upon her!" he hissed through his clenched teeth. He walked nervous

ife-to his wife and to the lover of his wife!" with a spasmodic burst of laughter. "Her lover is to be there; Menko is to be there, and I complain! The man whom I have sought in vain wi

but what would be the use? Menko would be at Maisons; and he would kill him before her face, in a duel if Menko would fight, or like a thief caught in the act if he attempted to fly. That would be better. Yes, he would kill him like a dog, if the other-but no! The

ocket of his overcoat a pair of loaded pistols: one of them he would

and that she was awaiting him in one of those white frocks which became her so well, with her silver belt clasped with the agraffe of opals. As he advanced, a host of memories overwhelmed him. He had walked with Marsa under these great lindens forming an arch overhead like that of a cathedral. He remembered conversations they had had in the evening, when a slight mist silvered the majestic park, and the white villa loomed vaguely before them like some phan

edding-day rose in his memory, and he turned aside to see again the little church, the threshold of which

steps before the bolted door. Zilah stood gazing at the Gothic portal, with a statue of the Virgin Mother above it, and wondered whether i

from the contemplation

an-drunk perhaps, at al

his way through the wo

sz

were returning from Marly), a lovely spot, surrounded by grassy slopes covered with violets, a little shady, Virgilian wood, where he and Marsa had dreamed away many happy hours.

his steps,

s waiting for him!

he stopped. He had reached his destination; but what was he about to do, he who

t what was the need of proposing a duel, when, exercising his r

however, but advanced to

ht to enter m

was answered by the bark

furiously at t

ide of the gate. It was a domestic whom

wish to see?"

incess

the man, his hand upon t

ce Zi

mazement, trying to see, through

r me?" dema

f the visitor, the Prince gave it a nervous push, which threw the serva

that you may recognize me

manner awed the man, and he bo

ed the steps, and entered the ho

e, and the man was speaking, speaking

of light from the salon where Marsa was showed beneath the door, which the Prince longed to burst open with his foot. Wi

m; the woman who had lied to him, and t

, that rich, contralto voice he knew so

d sought the handle of his pistol, and, stridi

He stood erect upon the threshold, while two other faces w

used in a

t Menko; he