"Not here, at any rate!" she said, in a low voice, and looking round at the silent group.
Some of them rose and moved away; but Drake held up his hand.
"Oh, do not lose an amusing story!" he said, with a smile eloquent of contempt. "Now, Lady Luce, if you please."
She looked from him to Nell.
"What am I to do?" she asked, as if in great distress. "Miss Lorton, you see my predicament; please come to my aid, and help me to escape. Tell Lord Angleford that you do not wish me to say any more."
Still looking straight before her, Nell responded, almost inaudibly:
"Speak! Yes—tell them!"
Lady Luce still seemed reluctant; at last she said, with an embarrassed laugh:
"After all, it may amount to nothing, and you'll be very much disappointed. Indeed, it is very likely not true."
Her reluctance was not altogether feigned, for it needed even her audacity and assurance to make such an accusation as she was about to bring against the future Countess of Angleford, and under her future roof; but she braced herself to a supreme effort, and, though she was really as white as Nell, she looked round boldly, as if confident of the truth of the thing she was going to say.