Leycester held up his hand.
"He is beyond your defiance," he said—"Jasper Adelstone is dead!"
She made a gesture of contemptuous indifference.
"What is that to me?" she said, hoarsely. "Why do you speak to me of him or any other man? Is it not enough that I have failed? Have you come to gloat over me? What is it that you want?"
He thrust his hand in his breast, and drew forth the note.
"I have come to restore this to you," he said. "I took it from the dead man's bosom—took it to save your reputation. The story it told me I have heard in fact from the lips of the girl you have plotted against and wronged. It is at her bidding that I am here—here to save you from scandal, and to cover if possible your retreat."
"At her's—at Stella Etheridge's?" she breathed, as though the name would choke her.
He waved his hand.
"You will leave this house to-night. I have made all arrangements necessary, and you will start in an hour's time."
She laughed discordantly.