"There was always a false note somewhere when he sung!" So she had said, laughing that little laugh of hers as cold and sharp as the clash of steel.

True, true; by all the majesty of Heaven, most true! There was indeed a false note--jarring, not so much the voice as the music of life itself.

There is stuff in all of us that will weave, as we desire it, into a web of stately or simple harmony; but let the meteor-like brilliancy of a woman's smile--a woman's touch--a woman's LIE--intermingle itself with the strain, and lo! the false note is struck, discord declares itself, and God Himself, the great Composer, can do nothing in this life to restore the old calm tune of peaceful, unspoiled days! So I have found; so all of you must find, long before you and sorrow grow old together.
"A white-haired fisherman!" The words of the king repeated themselves over and over again in my tortured brain.

Yes--I was greatly changed, I looked worn and old--no one would recognize me for my former self.

All at once, with this thought, an idea occurred to me--a plan of vengeance, so bold, so new, and withal so terrible, that I started from my seat as though stung by an adder.