“And you presume to say that you know not where she is—­that you are ignorant of the place of her retreat’?”

“Yes, I presume to say so, Sir Thomas; I have already pledged my honor as a gentleman to that effect, and I shall not repeat it.”

“As a gentleman!—­but how do I know that you are a man of honor and a gentleman?”

“Sir Thomas, don’t allow your passion or prejudice to impose upon your judgment and penetration as a man of the world.  I know you feel this moment that you are addressing a man who is both; and your own heart tells you that every word I have uttered respecting Miss Gourlay is true.”

“You will excuse me there, sir,” replied the baronet.  “Your position in this neighborhood is anything but a guarantee to the truth of what you say.  If you be a gentleman—­a man of honor, why live here, incognito, afraid to declare your name, or your rank, if you have any?—­why lie perdu, like a man under disgrace, or who had fled from justice?”

“Well, then, I beg you to rest satisfied that I am not under disgrace, and that I have motives for concealing my name that are disinterested, and even honorable, to myself, if they were known.”

“Pray, will you answer me another question—­Do you happen to know a firm in London named Grinwell and Co.? they are toothbrush manufacturers?  Now, mark my words well—­I say Grinwell and Co., tooth-brush manufacturers.”

“I have until this moment never heard of Grinwell and Co., tooth-brush manufacturers.”

“Now, sir,” replied Sir Thomas, “all this may be very well and very true; but there is one fact that you can neither deny nor dispute.  You have been paying your addresses clandestinely to my daughter, and there is a mutual attachment between you.”

“I love your daughter—­I will not deny it.”

“She returns your affections?”

“I cannot reply to anything involving Miss Gourlay’s opinions, who is not here to explain them; nor is it generous in you to force me into the presumptuous task of interpreting her sentiments on such a subject.”

“The fact, however, is this.  I have for some years entertained other and different views with respect to her settlement in life.  You may be a gentleman, or you may be an impostor; but one thing is certain, you have taught her to contravene my wishes—­to despise the honors to which a dutiful obedience to them would exalt her—­to spurn my affection, and to trample on my authority.  Now, sir, listen to me.  Renounce her—­give up all claims to her—­withdraw every pretension, now and forever; or, by the living God! you shall never carry your life out of this room.  Sooner than have the noble design which I proposed for her frustrated; sooner than have the projects of my whole life for her honorable exaltation ruined, I could bear to die the death of a common felon.  Here, sir, is a proposition that admits of only the one fatal and deadly alternative.  You see these pistols; they are heavily loaded; and you know my purpose; —­it is the purpose, let me tell you, of a resolved and desperate man.”