Access Online - The European Library

2 BLACK SHEEP.fully, and cunning and crime hacl availed him.He yvas a callous man by nature, of a base disposition;ancl,under any circumstances, yvould havebeen cool-headed ancl clogged. In the circumstancesin which lie found himself, his doggedcool-heacledness was peculiarly useful and valuable.He had relied upon them without anydoubt or misgivinguntil the day on which lie wa_jconvinced by George Dallas's appearance on thestage, which he believed him tohave abandonedfor an indefinite time, that he had made amiscalculation.Then a slow cold fear began to creepoverhim. Had his luck — what marvellous luckit had been! — turned?Believers in such a creedas his are mostly superstitious fanatics.Hehaclfelt some such dread; then, from the momentwhen Harriet — Harriet, who should have seenthat he had blundered:confound the yvoman, wasshelosing her head? — had told him,inher smoothencouraging way,that this new difficulty shouldbe surmounted as the others had been. Not thesmallest touch of repentance, not the lightestshadow of remorse, fell upon him with the stirringof this fact — only a hard, contemptuous