Walter sat down in the chair at his writing-table. His face had grown rather serious. He looked as if he were prepared to receive the confidences of a patient.
"Who did she go off with?" he asked.
Dick took a cigarette from the silver box, and lit it. "Mr. Ronald Mackenzie," he said, as he threw the match into the fireplace.
"Ronald Mackenzie! Where did she pick him up?"
"He picked her up. He was staying at Mountfield."
"I know, but he must have seen her before. He can't have persuaded her in five minutes."
"Just what I thought. But he did; damn him!" Then he told Walter everything that had happened, in his easy, leisurely way. "And the great thing now is to keep it from the governor," he ended up.
"Really, it's pretty strong," said Walter, after a short pause. "Fancy Cicely! I can't see her doing a thing like that."
"I could have boxed her ears with pleasure when I first heard of it," said Dick. "But somehow I don't feel so annoyed with her now. Poor little beggar! I suppose it's getting her away from that brute. He'd frightened her silly. He nearly got her, even when we were there fighting him."
"But what about poor old Jim?" asked Walter. "It's too bad of her, you know, Dick. She was engaged to Jim."