Then, half shamefacedly, half recklessly, he blundered upstairs again.

A moment, and he came stumbling down; but this time he was careful to keep the great bundle he bore between himself and her eyes, until he had got the door open.
That precaution taken, as if he thought the free cold air which entered would protect him from spells, he showed himself at his ease, threw down his bundle and faced her with an air of bravado.
"I need not have feared," he said with a tipsy grin, "but I had forgotten what I carry.

I have a hocus-pocus here "-- he touched his breast--"written by a wise man in Ravenna, and sealed with a dead Goth's hand, that is proof against devil or dam! And I defy thee, mistress." "Why ?" she cried.

"Why ?" And the note of indignation in her voice, the passionate challenge of her eyes, enforced the question.

In the human mind is a desire for justice that will not be denied; and even from this drunken ruffian a sudden impulse bade her demand it.