"I know only this much—that she contemplated something rash and foolish.... She told me nothing, but I fancied I should find her here. That was why I came.... I wanted so much to be with her."
"You mean you've just come up from Yelverton; but how did you manage that?"
She told him, and he frowned almost unbelievingly; then he said, in that surly, bitter way—
"Well, I tell you she isn't worth it. She wouldn't care if you broke yourself up into little bits to help her. She——" There was a hard, ugly word on his lips. He stifled it, but not easily; then he said, "Mrs. Lancing is married. In this note she informs me she was married yesterday morning early to Cuthbert Baynhurst."
Caroline cried out sharply.
"It isn't true!... Oh, it isn't true!"
"I think you'll find it is," said Broxbourne shortly.
He avoided looking at Caroline. He was not over sensitive, but something about this girl made him uncomfortable.
"And if you want to know why she has done this, I am the person to tell you. She wanted to show me that she's a bit cleverer than I took her to be, and, by God! she's about done it! She's tricked me fairly; but if she thinks it ends at this she'll live to know her mistake. No one scores off me more than once in their life."
His blustering return to anger made no effect on the girl sitting rigidly in the chair.