Fiction > Book editions > London, 1889 - Master of Ballantrae

142 THE MASTEE OF BALLANTRAE.
'' I am very courageous/'' said she ; and she hjoked at
me with a sort o£ smile^ very jminful to see, but very
brave too.
" It has come to a duel/^ said I.
" A duel ? " she repeated. "A duel ! Henry and "
" And the Master/^ said I, " Things have been
borne so long, things of which you know nothing,
which you would not believe if I should tell. But to-
night it went too far, and when he insulted you "
^ " Stop,^^ said she. " He ? Who ? "
" Oh ! madam/'' cried I, my bitterness breaking forth,
" do you ask me such a question ? Indeed, then, I may
go elsewhere for help ; there is none here ! "
" I do not know in what I have offended you,^' said
she. " Forgive me ; put me out of this suspense/^
But I dared not tell her yet ; I felt not sure of her ;
and at the doubt, and under the sense of impotence it
brought with it, I turned on the poor woman with some-
thing near to anger.
" Madam,^' said I, " we are speaking of two men :
one of them insulted you, and you ask me which. I
will help you to the answer. With one of these men
you have spent all your hours : has the other reproached
you 9 To one you have been always kind; to the
other, as God sees me and judges between us two,
I think not always : has his love ever failed you ?
To-night one of these two men told the other, in ray-
hearing — the hearing of a hired stranger, — that you