replied Nicholas, `a refuge and a home. If the near prospect of such a husband as you have provided will not prevail upon her, I hope she may be moved by the prayers and entreaties of one of her own sex. At all events they shall be tried. I myself, avowing to her father from whom I come and by whom I am commissioned, will render it an act of greater baseness, meanness, and cruelty in him if he still dares to force this marriage on. Here Iwait to see him and his daughter. For this I came and brought my sister even into your presence. Our purpose is not to see or speak with you; therefore to you we stoop to say no more.'
`Indeed!' said Ralph. `You persist in remaining here, ma'am, do you?'
His niece's bosom heaved with the indignant excitement into which he had lashed her, but she gave him no reply.
`Now, Gride, see here,' said Ralph. `This fellow--I grieve to say my brother's son: a reprobate and profligate, stained with every mean and selfish crime--this fellow, coming here today to disturb a solemn ceremony, and knowing that the consequence of his presenting himself in another man's house at such a time, and persisting in remaining there, must be his being kicked into the streets and dragged through them like the vagabond he is--this fellow, mark you, brings with him his sister as a protection, thinking we would not expose a silly girl to the degradation and indignity which is no novelty to him; and, even after I have warned her of what must ensue, he still keeps her by him, as you see, and clings to her apron-strings like a cowardly boy to his mother's. Is not this a pretty fellow to talk as big as you have heard him now?'
`And as I heard him last night,' said Arthur Gride; `as I heard him last night when he sneaked into my house, and--he! he! he!--very soon sneaked out again, when I nearly frightened him to death. And he wanting to marry Miss Madeline too! Oh dear! Is there anything else he'd like--anything else we can do for him, besides giving her up? Would he like his debts paid and his house furnished, and a few bank notes for shaving paper if he shaves at all? He! he! he!'
`You will remain, girl, will you?' said Ralph, turning upon Kate again, `to be hauled downstairs like a drunken drab--as I swear you shall if you stop here? No answer! Thank your brother for what follows. Gride, call down Bray--and not his daughter. Let them keep her above.'
`If you value your head,' said Nicholas, taking up a position before the door, and speaking in the same low voice in which he had spoken before, and with no more outward passion than he had before displayed; `stay where you are!'
`Mind me, and not him, and call down Bray,' said Ralph.
`Mind yourself rather than either of us, and stay where you are!' said Nicholas.
`Will you call down Bray?' cried Ralph.
`Remember that you come near me at your peril,' said Nicholas.
Gride hesitated. Ralph being, by this time, as furious as a baffled tiger, made for the door, and, attempting to pass Kate, clasped her arm roughly with his hand. Nicholas, with his eyes darting fire, seized him by the collar. At that moment, a heavy body fell with great violence on the floor above, and, in an instant afterwards, was heard a most appalling and terrific scream.
They all stood still, and gazed upon each other. Scream succeeded scream;a heavy pattering of feet succeeded; and many shrill voices clamouring together were heard to cry, `He is dead!'
`Stand off!' cried Nicholas, letting loose all the passion he had restrained till now; `if this is what I scarcely dare to hope it is, you are caught, villains, in your own toils.'
He burst from the room, and, darting upstairs to the quarter from whence the noise proceeded, forced his way through a crowd of persons who quite filled a small bed-chamber, and found Bray lying on the floor quite dead;his daughter clinging to the body.
`How did this happen?' he cried, looking wildly about him.
Several voices answered together, that he had been observed, through the half-opened door, reclining in a strange and uneasy position upon a chair; that he had been spoken to several times, and not answering, was supposed to be asleep, until some person going in and shaking him by the arm, he fell heavily to the ground and was discovered to be dead.
`Who is the owner of this house?' said Nicholas, hastily.