"Yes. Promise me, promise me on your honor that you will not tell Lady Wolfer!" she said.
"I promise," said the earl solemnly.
Nell glanced at the clock and mechanically took up her gloves, which she had torn from her hands.
"I will go straight to the station."
"You do not wish to see Ada?" he said, speaking of his wife by her Christian name, for the first time in Nell's hearing.
"No," she said, quietly but firmly.
"Perhaps it is best," he murmured. "I will order a carriage for you—you will have something to eat?"
"No, no; I will not! The carriage, please! Tell—tell Lady Wolfer that I had to go home suddenly. Tell her anything—but the truth."
He inclined his head; then he went to the bureau and took out some notes.
"You will let me give you these?" he asked, very humbly and anxiously.