"I thought that perhaps these bills you hold for me—that they would give you some power over him," and she colored and cast her eyes down.
He smiled.
"There is no longer arrest for debt, Lady Eleanor," he said. "They say there is no longer imprisonment, but that is not true. They imprison still, but they call it for contempt of court. Ah, it is a pity we are not living in the dark ages! We could have set an ambush for Lord Auchester, seized him bodily, and cast him into a dungeon below the moat until he had come to his senses; but there is an absurd prejudice against that kind of thing nowadays."
She drew a long breath, and, taking her silence as an acceptation of the fact that he could be of no use to her, he reached for his hat and prepared to go.
"I suppose it is the usual thing," he said sympathetically. "Some girl of the lower middle class has attracted him, and she and her parents have succeeded in obtaining a promise of marriage from him. It is not an uncommon case."
Lady Eleanor had sunk into the chair again, and answered languidly, for the excitement was beginning to tell upon her.
"I do not know the details of the affair. It is very probable. The girl's name is Lisle, Leslie Lisle——."
"What!" The exclamation broke from him with the suddenness of a gunshot.
Lady Eleanor looked up, but he had turned and stood at a little distance with his back to the window; and, though pale as usual, his face was set and calm.