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Rh thing but courage, of which he had plenty. "How dare you insult my affianced wife? Take that, then!"

"Ugh!" growled the stricken man, smarting from a blow across the eyes nearly blinding him, and returning it with a tremendous thrust. "You lie! She is my affianced wife!"

"Lie, do I?" hissed Gaston, his bad blood fully roused; and Cain and Abel clutched each other in mortal fray. A moment, and the slighter form toppled against the wall, and fell a crumpled heap at its foot; while the other, oppressed with the sudden horror of completed crime, turned and fled into the darkness and the night; and Valerie, bending low from her window, wrung her hands, and shrieked for help, moaning in her poor little selfish heart,—

"François has murdered Gaston, and I have lost them both."