“Excuse me, sir. I would rather not do so,” said Mr. Campbell.
And then turning to Judy, who had looked up with surprise and pity, for she could not bear to see any one pained or mortified, he added in explanation:
“No, my dear; I cannot do it.”
Then, with a smothered imprecation, Leegh turned on his heel and sauntered down the room to rejoin his sister, and feeling as if he were in a very weird and ugly dream.
In the meanwhile, however, Ran, Mike and Will Walling had been taking counsel together, and often glancing from the stupefied figure of Gentleman Geff, who still sat with blanched face, dropped jaw and starting eyes, staring into vacancy, to that of Lamia Leegh, who reclined on her chair with closed eyes and in a half-fainting condition.
At length Ran from the pity of his heart said:
“Walling, I cannot bear to expose that poor woman to the awful humiliation of hearing the whole of that fellow’s villainies exposed. I will go into the library and persuade her poor father to receive her in there and save her from this trial. And do you go to her and break the news of Mr. Legg’s presence in the house. You need tell her no more as yet. The worst need not be told until later.”
“Very well, I will do as you say. There is her precious brother talking to Mr. Campbell. I wonder what he is saying,” said Will Walling as he went up and stood beside the chair of Lamia Leegh.
She never moved or opened her eyes. She did not seem to have perceived his presence. He wished to address her, but hardly knew what name to call her. If he should call her by her real name, or even by the name she bore in New York before her marriage, it would startle and offend her. It would seem a deliberate insult. If he should call her by Ran’s name it would be by a false one.
The last alternative, however, was the one on which he decided to act. It could do no harm, he thought, to humor her delusion by calling her by the name she honestly supposed to be hers by right of marriage.