A man may be endowed with superb physique, and a constitution that is in perfect working order--his face and outward appearance may denote the most harmonious action of the life principle within him--and yet his nerves may be so finely strung that he may be capable of suffering acuter agony in his mind than if his body were to be hacked slowly to pieces by jagged knives, and it will leave no mark on his features while YOUTH still has hold on his flesh and blood.
So it was with me; and I wondered what SHE--Nina--would say, could she behold me, unmasked as it were, in the solitude of my own room.

This thought roused another in my mind--another at which I smiled grimly.

I was an engaged man! Engaged to marry my own wife; betrothed for the second time to the same woman! What a difference between this and my first courtship of her! THEN, who so great a fool as I--who so adoring, passionate and devoted! NOW, who so darkly instructed, who so cold, so absolutely pitiless! The climax to my revenge was nearly reached.

I looked through the coming days as one looks through a telescope out to sea, and I could watch the end approaching like a phantom ship--neither slow nor fast, but steadily and silently.

I was able to calculate each event in its due order, and I knew there was no fear of failure in the final result.