"I—I cannot tell you! Do not ask me!" was her prayer. "Go now—go and leave me!"
Lord Leycester looked from her to Frank, who shook his head and glared at Jasper.
"I don't understand it, Lord Leycester; it is no use looking to me. I have done as you asked me—at least as far as I was able until I was prevented. We got out at Vauxhall as you wished us to do——"
"I!" said Leycester, not loudly, but with an intense emphasis. "I! I did not ask you to do anything of the kind! I have been waiting for you at Waterloo, and thinking that I had missed you and that you had gone on to—to the place I asked you to go to, I hurried there. A man—Mr. Adelstone's servant, I presume—was waiting, and told me Stella was here waiting for me. I came here—that is all!"
Frank glared at Jasper and raised an accusing finger, which he pointed threateningly.
"Ask him for an explanation!" he said.
Leicester looked at the white, defiant face.
"What jugglery is this, sir?" he demanded. "Am I to surmise that—that this lady was entrapped and brought here against her will?"
Jasper inclined his head.