Page:The Diothas, or, A far look ahead (IA diothasorfarlook01macn).pdf/365

 escape,—a safer as well as more lucrative business than that of the hired bravo, and, at the same time,—as posterity will read with wondering incredulity,—perfectly respectable?…Mark my words: if society continues thus to shirk one of its most imperative duties, individnals will re-assert the dormant right of blood-revenge; the time will come when the male relatives of the murdered will live in disgrace as long as the assassin breathes."

As my friend uttered these words, his eyes flashed indignant fire; and I well knew that he was thinking of a specially atrocious miscarriage of justice that had recently occurred. There was, of course, no use in arguing with him while in such a mood. I said merely,—

"My dear fellow, your liver must be in a terrible condition. You must really take something."

"On the contrary," returned he with a laugh, "it is I have made you take something; and it has done me an immense deal of good."

Such is the eccentric friend whose happiness Edith and I are plotting. From some words that fell from her the other day, I know she is planning which of her uncle S's pretty daughters is to be the future Mrs. E. Who knows? It seems to me quite possible, that the yet unsuspecting Mabel, Edith's prettiest cousin, and resembling her in many ways, is destined to become my friend's wife, and the mother of that Estai who, as I read in the great library at Salu, is to become my son-in-law in the year of grace 1910.

Be that as it may, I am sufficiently happy in the present to be willing to let the future take care of itself. For it