"Well! He went into that part of his life, and a dark wild part it is. Shall I tell you? Or would it worry you just now?"

     "Tell me by all means. Every word."

     Herbert bent forward to look at me more nearly, as if my reply had been rather more hurried or more eager than he could quite account for. "Your head is cool?" he said, touching it.

     "Quite," said I. "Tell me what Provis said, my dear Herbert."

     "It seems," said Herbert, "--there's a bandage off most charmingly, and now comes the cool one,--makes you shrink at first, my poor dear fellow, don't it? but it will be comfortable presently,--it seems that the woman was a young woman, and a jealous woman, and a revengeful woman; revengeful, Handel, to the last degree."

     "To what last degree?"

     "Murder.--Does it strike too cold on that sensitive place?"