Indeed, there have been many
instances in real life where the villain and the hero have been on
excellent terms, and to the great benefit of the hero too. But in
this case Balderstone was to follow in the rut, and become the rival
of Osborne for the hand of Marguerite Andrews--the heroine.
Balderstone was to write a book, which for a time should so fascinate
Miss Andrews that she would be blind to the desirability of Osborne
as a husband-elect; a book full of the weird and thrilling, dealing
with theosophy and spiritualism, and all other "Tommyrotisms," as
Harley called them, all of which, of course, was to be the making and
the undoing of Balderstone; for equally of course, in the end, he
would become crazed by the use of opium--the inevitable end of
writers of that stamp. Osborne would rescue Marguerite from his
fatal influence, and the last chapter would end with Marguerite lying
pale and wan upon her sick-bed, recovering from the mental
prostration which the influence over hers of a mind like
Balderstone's was sure to produce, holding Osborne's hand in hers,
and "smiling a sweet recognition at the lover to whose virtues she
had so long been blind.
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