Sir Archie laughed—a laugh that sounded hideously grotesque at such a moment; then he took up his hat and gloves; but he laid them down again.
"Will you give me a minute—three—with Miss Lorton, alone?" he asked, biting his lip.
The earl hesitated for a moment, and glanced at Nell searchingly; then, as if satisfied, he said:
"Yes, I will do so, on condition that you leave this house at the expiration of that time. I will rejoin you when he has gone."
As he left the room, Sir Archie turned to Nell.
"Do you know what you have done?" he asked hoarsely, and almost inaudibly. "Do you know what this means: that you have sacrificed yourself for—for her?"
Nell had sunk into a chair, and she looked up at him, and then away from him; but in that momentary glance he had read the light of an inflexible resolution, an undaunted courage in the gray eyes.
"Yes, I know," she said. "He—he thinks, will always think, that it was I——" She broke off with an irrepressible shudder.
Sir Archie's hand went to his mustache to cover the quiver of his lips.
"My God! it's the noblest thing! But—have you counted the cost—the consequences?"