n instant. He took her cold hand and drew it
within his arm.

"No!" he said. "You will not go----"

He looked at Lady Luce, and there was no need to finish the sentence.

She smiled, and fanned herself slowly.

"Of course, Miss Lorton can explain it all," she said. "I am very sorry
to have been the cause, the innocent cause, of such an unpleasant scene.
But really you forced me to speak; and we all know that though Miss
Lorton has admitted her--what shall I call it?--little escapade, there
must be some satisfactory explanation. No one will believe for a moment
that she really intended to elope with Sir Archie."

While she had been speaking, some of the guests had edged toward the
door. At such moments the kindest thing one can do is to remove oneself
as quickly as possible. When a sudden death happens in a ballroom, the
dancing ceases, the music stops, the revelers vanish. Something worse
than death had happened in this drawing-room. The happiness of more than
one life had been blasted as by a stroke of lightning.

There was a general movement toward the door. A group of old
friends--county neighbors, real friends of Drake and the
countess--gathered round the little group. Falconer and Dick pushed
their way through them none too ceremoniously.

"I'll take my sister home, Lord Angleford," said Dick hotly; while
Falconer took her hand, his face white, his eyes flashing.

Nell would have drawn away from Drake and turned to them; but he put his
arm round her waist and held her by sheer force.

"I beg that no one will go," he said; and his voice, though not loud,
rang like a bell. Everybody stopped. "I think every one has heard Lady
Lucille's accusation against my future wife," he said. "For reasons
which concern herself and me only, my future wife"--he laid an emphasis
on the words--"has seen fit not to deny this accusation. I am quite
content that it should be so. If we have any friends here let----"

Before he could finish his appeal, the door opened, and Lord and Lady
Wolfer entered the room. They were in traveling dress, and Lady Wolfer
looked pale and in trouble, while Wolfer's face was grave and stern.

"If any friend, whether it be man or woman, deems an explanation due to
them, I will ask Miss Lorton if she can give it to them," continued
Drake. "If she should not think fit to do so----"

Lady Wolfer, until now unnoticed except by a very few, came through the
circle which at once had formed round the pr