"Don't ask her," broke in Frank. "She is not in a fit state to answer. This fellow, this Jasper Adelstone, has bewitched her! I think he has frightened her out of her senses by some threat——"
"Frank! Hush! Oh, hush!" broke from Stella.
Lord Leycester started and eyed her scrutinizingly, but he saw only anguish and pity and sorrow—not guilt—in her face.
"It is true," declared Frank. "This is what she has said, and this only since I came back into the room, and I can't get any more out of her. I think, Lord Leycester, you had better throw him out of the window."
Leycester looked from one to the other. There was evidently more in the case than could be met by following Frank's advice.
He put his hand to his head for a moment.
"I don't understand," he said, almost to himself.
"It is not difficult to understand," said Jasper, with an ill-concealed sneer. "The lady absolutely refuses to keep the appointment you made—you forced upon her. She declines to accompany you. She——"
"Silence," said Leycester, in a low voice that was more terrible than shouting. Then he turned to Stella.
"Is it so?" he asked.