Walls, back again, as cool as himself. 'You are
right, I dare say. I'll settle my bill to-night and be off to-morrow.'
"He did settle his bill at the bar before they parted, took a last glass
with Stephen Dane, and walked up to his room, whistling. Steeple Hill
never saw him more. When morning came he was far away, and Mary Dane
with him."
Again Miriam paused; again Mollie held the wine-cup to her lips; again
she drank and went on:
"I couldn't tell you, Mollie, if I would, the shock and the scandal that
ran through Steeple Hill, and I wouldn't if I could. If it were in my
power, such horrors would never reach your innocent ears. But they were
gone, and Stephen Dane was like a man mad. He drank, and drank, and
drank until he was blind drunk, and then, in spite of everybody, set off
to go after them. Before he had got ten yards from his own doorstep he
fell down in a fit, blood pouring from his month and nostrils. That
night he died.
"The hour of his death, when he knew he had but a few moments to live,
he turned every soul out of the room, and made his brother kneel down
and take a solemn oath of vengeance.
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