"No thanks to him for that! He would make me a slave now, as he
did then, if he dared, but he has found that, poor, trodden worm
as I was, I had life enough left to turn and sting."
"Which you do with a vengeance! Oh I you're a Tartar!" remarked
Sir Norman to himself. "The saints forefend that Leoline should
be like you in temper, as she is in history and face; for if she
is, my life promises to be a pleasant one."
"This rascally crew of cut-throats, whom his villainous highness
headed," said Miranda, "were an almost immense number then, being
divided in three bodies - London cut-purses, Hounslow Heath
highwaymen, and assistant-coiners, but all owning him for their
lord and master. He told me all this himself, one day when, in
an after-dinner and most gracious mood, he made a boasting
display of his wealth and greatness; told me I was growing up
very pretty indeed, and that I was shortly to be raised to the
honor and dignity, and bliss of being his wife.
"I fancy I must have had a very vague idea of what that one small
word meant, and was besides in an unusually contented and
peaceful state of mind, or I should, undoubtedly, have raised one
of his cut-glass decanters and smashed in his head with it.
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