"Yes?" he said, with suppressed eagerness and anxiety. "What is it? I--I
am rather pressed for time." He glanced at his watch. "Won't she see me?
If you would go up and ask her. I shan't detain her more than a minute."
"No; she cannot see you," said Nell. "I am to ask you to go--where you
are going--without seeing her."
He looked at her steadily, gnawing his lip softly.
"I--I don't understand," he said, still trying to smile. "She--told you
that I am going--abroad?"
Nell inclined her head gravely.
"Yes? But didn't she tell you that--that I must see her before I go?
That--that it is important?"
"She cannot see you," said Nell, her heart beating fast. "She wishes you
to go, and--and to remain abroad----"
His face crimsoned, then went pale.
"You know--she has told you why--why I have come this morning?" he said,
in a low voice.
"Yes, I know," assented Nell, the shame, for him, dyeing her face.
He stared at her for a moment in silence; then he said, half defiantly,
half sullenly: "Very well, then. If you know why I am here, you must know that I cannot
take such a message, that I cannot go--without her. For Heaven's sake,
Miss Lorton, go and fetch her! There is no time to lose. Her--my
happiness is at stake. I beg your pardon; I'm afraid I'm brusque;
but----For Heaven's sake, bring her! If I could see her, speak to her
for a moment----"
Nell shook her head.
"I cannot," she said. "It would be of no use. Lady Wolfer would not go
with you."
He came nearer to her and lowered his voice, almost speaking through his
teeth.
"See here, Miss Lorton, you--you have no right to be in this
business--to interfere with it. You--you are too young to
understand----"
Nell crimsoned.
"No," she said, almost inaudibly. "I understand. I--I have seen your
letter." Her calm, almost her courage, broke down, and, clasping her
hands, she pleaded to him. "Oh, yes, I do understand! Sir Archie, go; do,
do go! It is cruel of you to stay. If--if you really love her, you will go
and never come back."
His face went white and his eyes flashed.
"No, you don't understand, although you think you do. You say that I am
cruel. I should be cruel if I did what she asks me, what you wish me to
do, to leave her in this house, to the old life of misery. I love her; I
want to take her away with me from the man who doesn't care an atom for
her, whom she does not love."