Ah, my dear Malkoff, I've had a narrow escape! He came here intending to shoot me." "I did not," I protested.

"I am here to demand satisfaction on behalf of Miss Heath." "Oh!--well, if the lady cares to come here herself, I will give her the satisfaction she desires," was his crafty reply.
"The lady has escaped you, and it is therefore hardly likely she will willingly return to Helsingfors," I said.
"It was you who succeeded, by throwing the guard into the water, in abducting her from the castle," he remarked.

"But," he added sneeringly, with a sinister smile, "I presume your gallantry was prompted by affection--eh ?" "That is my own affair." "A deaf and dumb woman is surely not a very cheerful companion!" "And who caused her that affliction ?" I cried hotly.

"When she was at Chichester she possessed speech and hearing as other girls.

Indeed, she was not afflicted when on board the _Lola_ in Leghorn harbor only a few months ago.