As he did so she swayed toward him, and almost fell at his feet, but Jasper glided toward her and held her, and, as Leycester turned, he saw her leaning on Jasper, her arm linked in his.
Without a word Leycester opened the door and went out.
Frank sprang toward him, but Leycester put him back with a firm grasp.
"Oh, Lord Leycester!" he cried.
Leycester paused for a moment, his hand on the boy's arm.
"Go to her," he said. "She has lied to me. There is something between her and that man. I have seen her for the last time," and before the boy could find a word of expostulation or entreaty, Leycester pushed him aside and went out.
[CHAPTER XXXI.]
Leycester went down the stairs with the uncertain gait of a drunken man, and having reached the open air stood for a moment staring round him as if he were bereft of his senses; as indeed he almost was.
The shock had come so suddenly that it had deprived him of the power of reasoning, of following the thing out to its logical conclusion. As he walked on, threading his way along the crowded thoroughfare, and exciting no little attention and remark by his wild, distraught appearance, he realized that he had lost Stella.