The Firebrand

But even as he went the words of the viper fermented in his brain till he went mad.

"There is a broken bar--what more likely! The house is old--my father's father's. There was a tale of my grandfather's sister--avenged truly, but still a tale told in whispers in the twilight. God's truth, could it be even thus with Dolóres, little Dolóres, whom I have held next in honour and purity to Mary the mother of God?"

So he meditated, dashing this way and that to find his enemy.

"Ah, fool! Three times fool to trust a woman! How true the proverb, 'Who sees his wife crane her neck through the jalousies, had better twist it and be done!'"

He would go! Yes, he would know. If this thing were false (as he prayed God), he would kneel and kiss her little white feet. They were pink--yes, pink on the instep as the heart of a sea-shell. And he, Ramon, would set the arched instep on his neck and bid her