"This afternoon."
"I understand. You and she are in the habit of meeting in secret outside my house. Such conduct is infamous, and now that I have positive knowledge of such proceedings I shall know how to act. Mr. Paget, we are speaking here in private, with no listeners to report what is said. Let me advise you to be careful as to what you say or do about this imaginary letter of yours. The young person you refer to may have a good name to lose, and it will be foolish on your part to set a lady of my standing in society against her. Mud will stick, Mr. Paget, never mind, by whom it is thrown, but when it is thrown by a lady or gentleman of repute it will stick all the closer. I learn, too late, that you have used my house as an assignation house----"
"You are stating what is false," cried Gerald, indignantly.
"As an assignation house," repeated Mrs. Seaton, with a malicious smile. "Having discovered your baseness--for you are no gentleman, Mr. Paget, and the other person implicated is no lady--there is only one course open to me. That course I shall pursue. If you do not leave my presence instantly I shall send for the police to remove you."
With that, the venomous woman threw open the door, and Gerald Paget, dismayed and discomfited, took his departure.
"A nice mess I have made of it," he thought, as he walked ruefully from the house, without venturing to look back. "What on earth made me beard the lioness in her den? The lioness! Not at all. There is something of nobility in that breed, and Mrs. Seaton hasn't a particle of nobility about her. She is a serpent. Her fangs are poisonous. How will she act toward Emilia? Mud will stick, she says. But what does it matter if Emilia loves me?"
He allowed himself to be carried away by his enthusiasm. He was young, impulsive, honest, and straightforward. Grand weapons in honorable warfare, but when is war honorable? The world, with its hidden snares and pitfalls, lay before him and Emilia, in whose pure souls faith and love shone radiant. How would it fare with them when pitted against envy, greed, and malice? Here was Mrs. Seaton, ready to defame and blacken; and travelling swiftly toward them was the beggar and spendthrift, Leonard, the man of selfish pleasure.
[CHAPTER XXV.]
LOST, OR SAVED?
Some three hours after Gerald's departure from the house, Emilia was summoned into the presence of Mrs. Seaton. When she received the message she was preparing for bed; it was night, and a heavy rain was falling.