The door opened as he spoke, and Scrivell came in followed by Frank, who hurled Scrivell out of the way and sprang before Jasper, inarticulate with rage.
But before he could find breath for words, his eyes fell upon Stella's face, and a change came over him.
"What does this mean?" he stammered. "What do you mean, Mr. Adelstone, by this outrage? Do you know that I have been kept a prisoner——"
Jasper interrupted him calmly, quietly, with an exasperating smile.
"You are a prisoner no longer, my dear Frank!"
"How dare you!" exclaimed the enraged boy, and he raised his cane.
It would have fallen across Jasper's face, for he made no attempt to ward it, but Stella sprang between them, and it fell on her shoulder.
"Frank," she moaned rather than cried, "you—you must not."
"Stella," he exclaimed, "stand away from him. I think I shall kill him."
She laid her hand upon his arm and looked up into his face with, ah! what an anguish of sorrowful pity and love.