"Have mercy," still repeated Lady Avondale; but it was but faintly. "I'll never have mercy for one like you, serpent, who having been fondled in his bosom, bit him to the heart. Are you not ashamed to look at me?" Calantha's tears had flowed in the presence of her husband; but now they ceased. Sir Richard softened in his manner. "Our chances in life are as in a lottery," he said; "and if one who draws the highest prize of all, throws it away in very wantonness, and then sits down to mourn for it, who will be so great a hypocrite, or so base a flatterer, as to affect compassion? You had no pity for him: you ought not to be forgiven."
"Can you answer it to yourself to refuse me one interview? Can you have the heart to speak with such severity to one already fallen?" "Madam, why do you appeal to me? What are you approaching me for? What can I do?"
"Oh, there will be curses on your
