I simply wanted to tell you of the projected marriage." Then after a moment of half-maudlin, sullen silence he continued, "Go to bed, Malcolm, go to bed, or we'll be quarrelling again." I was glad enough to go to bed, for my cousin was growing drunk, and drink made a demon of this man, whose violence when sober was tempered by a heart full of tenderness and love.
Next morning Sir George was feeling irritable from the effects of the brandy he had drunk over night.

At breakfast, in the presence of Lady Crawford, Madge, and myself, he abruptly informed Dorothy that he was about to give that young goddess to Lord James Stanley for his wife.

He told her of the arrangement he had made the day before with the Earl of Derby.

Lady Crawford looked toward her brother in surprise, and Madge pushed her chair a little way back from the table with a startled movement.

Dorothy sprang to her feet, her eyes flashing fire and her breast rising and falling like the storm-wrought pulsing of the sea.