Nell, with her eyes fixed on the ground, shook her head.
"No!" she whispered.
Sir Archie swore under his breath.
"I can't stand this!" he said desperately. "Look here, Wolfer, you are
making a damnable mistake. Miss Lorton----"
The earl turned to him, but looked above his head.
"Excuse me," he said, "I have no desire to hear any explanation of your
conduct--it would be impossible for you to defend it. But, having
received Miss Lorton's reply to my question, I have the right to ask you
to quit my house--and I do so!"
Sir Archie went up to Nell and looked at her straight in the face.
"Do you--do you wish me to remain silent?" he said hoarsely. "Think
before you speak! Do you?"
Nell looked up instantly.
"Yes!" she replied, in a low voice. "If you will go--forever!"
Sir Archie gazed at her as if he had suddenly become unconscious of the
earl's presence.
"My God!" he breathed. "You--you are treatin' me better than I deserve.
Yes, I am goin'," he said, turning fiercely to the earl, who had made a
slight movement of impatience. "But I want to say this. I want"--he
moistened his lips, as if speech were difficult--"to tell you--and--and
her--that--that what has taken place will never be spoken of by me while
I live. I am goin'--abroad. I shall not return for some time."
The earl made a gesture of indifference.
"Your movements can be of no interest to me," he said, "and I trust that
they may be of as little importance to this unhappy girl, now that she
knows the character of the man whom she was about to trust."
Sir Archie laughed--a laugh that sounded hideously grotesque at such a
moment; then he took up his hat and gloves; but he laid them down again.
"Will you give me a minute--three--with Miss Lorton, alone?" he asked,
biting his lip.
The earl hesitated for a moment, and glanced at Nell searchingly; then, as
if satisfied, he said: "Yes, I will do so, on condition that you leave this house at the
expiration of that time. I will rejoin you when he has gone."
As he left the room, Sir Archie turned to Nell.
"Do you know what you have done?" he asked hoarsely, and almost
inaudibly. "Do you know what this means: that you have sacrificed
yourself for--for her?"
Nell had sunk into a chair, and she looked up at him, and then away from
him; but in that momentary glance he had read the light of an inflexible
resolution, an undaunted courage in the gray eyes.