"Ah, Wentworth, pardon me! I should have moderated my movements somewhat before turning this corner."
He was about to pass on, when Philip hoarsely exclaimed while he faced him:
"Hold! What is this I hear? I am told that you are going to marry Mollie Heatherford. Is it true?"
Clifford drew himself up slightly before replying.
"It is true, Mr. Wentworth; I am going to marry Miss Heatherford," he coldly replied, but with significant emphasis.
"Curse you!" fairly hissed Wentworth, while his grip tightened on the stem of the plant. "So that has been your game, has it? You have deliberately set yourself to cut me out. I told you four years ago that she was my promised wife; we had been pledged to each other from childhood, and heavens! do you think I am going to tamely submit to being robbed by a low-born pauper like you? Do you imagine that I'm going to let you marry her? Never, so help me!"
His right hand swung out with tremendous force, lifting the flower-pot above his head and aiming it directly at Clifford's face.
But Faxon was too quick for him. He sprang to one side, caught the uplifted arm with a grip that almost paralyzed it, and, wrenching the dangerous missile--which fortunately remained intact, the plant having become root-bound in the pot--from his grasp, calmly replaced it where it belonged.
"Mr. Wentworth, this is the second time that you have made a rash attempt upon my life," he quietly observed. "I advise you never to repeat it, and you will remember that Miss Heatherford is my promised wife, and I shall not tolerate anything that verges upon a recurrence of what has just taken place."
He paused a moment, while a softer expression swept over his fine face.
"Wentworth, what ails you?" he continued in a more friendly tone. "What has made you so strangely antagonistic toward me all these years? I fail to understand it. It began away back during our first term in college; what caused it? Where is your manliness that you could cherish a grudge for so long? Believe me, I never had the slightest personal ill-will against you, and certainly you must have been in a very uncomfortable frame of mind most of this time. If I have unconsciously done you any wrong in the past, I should be very glad to be told of it."