And we were
scarce left alone ere I made haste to hang out a flag of truce.
'My cousin,' said I, 'trust me, you will not find me inclined to be
your enemy.'
He paused in front of me--for he had not accepted the lawyer's
invitation to be seated, but walked to and fro in the apartment--
took a pinch of snuff, and looked at me while he was taking it with
an air of much curiosity.
'Is it even so?' said he. 'Am I so far favoured by fortune as to
have your pity? Infinitely obliged, my cousin Anne! But these
sentiments are not always reciprocal, and I warn you that the day
when I set my foot on your neck, the spine shall break. Are you
acquainted with the properties of the spine?' he asked with an
insolence beyond qualification.
It was too much. 'I am acquainted also with the properties of a
pair of pistols,' said I, toising him.
'No, no, no!' says he, holding up his finger. 'I will take my
revenge how and when I please. We are enough of the same family to
understand each other, perhaps; and the reason why I have not had
you arrested on your arrival, why I had not a picket of soldiers in
the first clump of evergreens, to await and prevent your coming--I,
who knew all, before whom that pettifogger, Romaine, has been
conspiring in broad daylight to supplant me--is simply this: that
I had not made up my mind how I was to take my revenge.
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