"Poor Betsy! ay, and poor, poor Fashion! The child confided in me. So terrible an effect had that life to which she was condemned upon her that--you will scarce believe it--she was ready to become the prey of any adventurer who might promise to release her from it."
"And I failed to see this--I failed to see this," said Dick. His voice sounded like a moan of pain.
"You know the men who paid her attention--who were encouraged by her father; you know some of them," continued Mr. Long. "One of them, who was reported to be the owner of a fortune, found great favour in the eyes of her father. He obtained easy access to the house, and he might actually have prevailed upon her to run away with him, for there was no lack of promises with him, if I had not come here. It was to save her from him that I asked her to give me her promise; for I knew that he had a wife already."
Dick started to his feet, his eyes blazing.
"The infamous hound!" he cried. "Who is he? What is his name? Only let me know what is his name, that I may kill him."
"There is no need for me to mention his name," said Mr. Long; "there is no immediate need for you to kill him or to give him a chance of killing you."
"Can you sit there before me, and tell me that 'tis not the duty of every man to do his best to rid the world of such a ruffian?" cried Dick passionately.
"I will not take it upon me to define what is the duty of a man in certain circumstances," said Mr. Long. "But I assure you that I should be sorry to go so far as to assert that the world would not be well rid of this particular ruffian; still, I know that the killing of him just now would be to overwhelm one who, we know, shrinks from even a publicity which is wholly honourable. There are doubtless many girls who retain so much of the feminine animal in their nature as causes them to delight to be made the subject of a fight between two men; that is--unhappily, it seems to me, but that may be because I do not understand all the principles of nature--an ordinary trait of the sex; but--you and I--ah, we know something of her, do we not?"
"But a fellow who set himself to bring about her ruin---- He is not still in Bath--you would not allow him to remain in Bath?"