"I will make you pay for that." As he tried to draw her to him, she whipped from her dress a small stiletto which she wore as an ornament, and drew it back.
"Let go, or I'll drive it into you," she said, with fire darting from her eyes; and Wickersham let go amid the laughter and jeers of those about them, who were egging the girl on and calling to her to "give it to him." Wickersham after this tried to make his peace, but without avail.

Though he did not know it, Terpsichore had in her heart a feeling of hate which was relentless.

It was his description that had set the sheriff's posse on the track of her dissipated lover, and though she had "washed her hands of Bill Bluffy," as she said, she could not forgive the man who had injured him.
Then Wickersham, having committed one error, committed another.

He tried to get revenge, and the man who sets out to get revenge on a woman starts on a sad journey.

At least, it was so with Wickersham.
He attributed the snubbing he had received to the girl's liking for Keith, and he began to meditate how he should get even with them.