“To Sir Harold. My detective has found him. He is well in health, but for the present his mind is a wreck. I came here like a happy schoolboy, and go away the most miserable and disappointed of men. I would have staked my life on the constancy of Lady Elaine Seabright.”
Miss Nugent was painfully agitated. There was an unnatural fire in her eyes.
“So my cousin is back!” she whispered, her whole frame quivering with excitement. “You must come and see us to-morrow, colonel; my mother and I will be glad to see you. It is best for you not to remain here longer. I can understand the shock of your disappointment, but your pity for the earl’s daughter is wasted. I have always known this. You men cannot divine the depth of our sex as a woman can. Lady Elaine is tender and loving, but her character lacks strength. Knowing Sir Harold as I do, the escape from this marriage is a most fortunate thing for him, for he would have found out, sooner or later, that his wife was little better than a doll. You wonder that I should speak so strongly? I cannot help it when I realize how quickly and easily my poor cousin has been forgotten by the woman who may have ruined his whole life. The earl’s daughter and I have had bitter words this very evening. I do not think that we can ever be friendly again. She told me calmly of her engagement to Viscount Rivington, and at the same time was wearing the ring that Sir Harold gave her. She spoke of him so lightly that I became angry, and both have uttered things that may never be forgotten.”
She accompanied him to the door, fearful lest anything might happen even now to turn the tide against her. She longed to ask him questions concerning her cousin, but dared not.
As they paused for a moment in the hall, he saw Lady Elaine and Viscount Rivington enter the ballroom from another doorway. What further proof did he require that all he had heard was indeed true?
“Good-by, Margaret,” he said. “You shall hear the whole pitiful story in a day or two. Sir Harold is in no danger, but his mind concerning the past is blank. He does not know even me. He does not remember Lady Elaine, and now I believe it is better so. I have been cherishing some pet schemes for trying to restore his memory, but now all is over.”
He went away, cursing at the frailty of women, and Miss Nugent thanked Heaven when he was gone.
“It is hard to believe,” she thought, “that Elaine would so soon succumb to the pleadings of the viscount, but did I not see her clasped to his bosom with my own eyes? I must find out what it all means.”
Had she waited one moment longer, when she was spying upon the viscount and Lady Elaine, how different would her feelings have been!
Recovering from her astonished bewilderment, Elaine had pushed her suitor indignantly aside, a flash of loathing and disgust in her eyes.