NOW I knew the extent of my injury; I was a man bitterly wronged, vilely duped.

Justice, reason, and self-respect demanded that I should punish to the utmost the miserable tricksters who had played me false.

The passionate tenderness I had felt for my wife was gone--I plucked it from my heart as I would have torn a thorn from my flesh--I flung it from me with disgust as I had flung away the unseen reptile that had fastened on my neck in the vault.

The deep warm friendship of years I had felt for Guido Ferrari froze to its very foundations--and in its place there rose up, not hate, but pitiless, immeasurable contempt.

A stern disdain of myself also awoke in me, as I remembered the unreasoning joy with which, I had hastened--as I thought--home, full of eager anticipation and Romeo-like ardor.