"Frank!"
"Yes, I know you don't care about that, neither do I much, but other people will. My father will be glad—he could not help being so, and then you will be safe."
"Safe? What do you mean?" asked Stella.
He hesitated. Then he looked up at her with an angry resentful flash in his blue eyes.
"Stel! I was thinking of that fellow Adelstone. I don't like him! I hate him, in fact; and I hate him all the more because he has set his mind upon having you."
Stella smiled and shook her head.
"Oh, of course you can't see any harm in him. It's quite right you shouldn't—you are a girl, and don't know the world; but I know something of men, and I say that Jasper Adelstone is not a man to be trusted."
"I don't like him," said Stella, in a low tone, "but I am quite 'safe,' as you call it, without marry—without doing what you and Leycester wish."
"I don't know," he muttered, gloomily. "At any rate, you would be safe then, and—and, Stella, you must go. See, now, Leycester has trusted you to me—has placed this in my hands. It is as if he said, 'I saved your life—you promised to help me. Here is something to do—do it!' And I will. You will go. Think, Stel!—A few short hours and you will be Lady Leycester!"
She did think of it, and her heart beat tumultuously.