"I'm afraid he has plunged deeply this time," was his smooth reply. "Unfortunately, he only has himself to blame, though I deplore the fact that I was not with him at the time."
Both Lady Constance and Lord Standon looked up, startled by his tone as much as by his words; and Jasper continued glibly:
"He gave the jockey a ten-pound note last night, and, of course, the man got drunk. Consequences--an unsteady hand this morning, a hasty push at the last rise, and a clear loss of the race, not to mention the colossal sum in bets. All his own fault! If he will be so recklessly generous, what is to be done? But, as I said before, I blame myself for not watching him more closely."
"No one blames you, Mr. Vermont," said Lord Standon coldly, for even he, the least suspicious of men, seemed to detect the false sorrow in the speaker's voice.
Lady Constance looked at him gratefully; and Lord Standon was encouraged thereby to proceed:
"Adrien is generous to a fault; and if in this case it has had disastrous results, it is usually a fault which few imitate."
Jasper raised his eyebrows; then, with a low bow to Lady Constance, and a gentle, deprecatory shrug of his shoulders, walked away.
The girl waited till he was out of earshot, then turned impulsively to Lord Standon.
"I hate that man," she said in a low voice; "and sometimes I believe he hates Adrien too."
"So do I," returned Lord Standon, looking with intense admiration into her lovely, troubled face.