Shrugging his shoulders, and obviously unwilling, Dollamore stepped aside with him into an embrasure of the window, and then Mitford said:
"I am in a mess, and I want your help."
"In what way?"
"I have had a row with Tchernigow--you can guess about what; he insulted me, and I struck him. He'll have me out of course, and I want you to act for me."
Lord Dollamore paused for an instant, and took the stick's advice. Then he said:
"Look here, Si Charles Mitford: in the least offensive way possible, I want to tell you that I can't do this."
"You refuse me?
"I do. We were acquaintances years ago, when you were quite a boy; and when you came to your title you renewed the acquaintance. I did not object then; and had things continued as they were then, I would willingly have stood by you now. But they are not as they were then; they are entirely changed, and all for the worse. You have been going to the bad rapidly for the last twelve months; and, in short, have compromised yourself in a manner which renders it impossible for me to be mixed up in any affair of yours."
"I understand you perfectly, Lord Dollamore," said Mitford, in a voice hoarse with rage, "The next request I make to you--and it shall be very shortly too--will be that you will stand not by me, but before me!"
"In that case," said Dollamore, with a bow,--"in that case, Sir Charles Mitford, you will not have to complain of a refusal on my part."