"Mr. Lancaster and Mr. Trevanna were playing cards and Mr. Trevanna insulted his friend by flinging the cards in his face. Hardly knowing what he was doing, Mr. Lancaster threw a decanter at Mr. Trevanna. It struck him on the head and stunned him. Thinking he was dead, Mr. Lancaster left, very likely to get assistance. Mr. Trevanna is now recovering and blames himself severely for provoking Mr. Lancaster's anger as he said Mr. Lancaster kept his temper admirably for some time under the grossest provocation."
"And Mr. Lancaster has disappeared?" said Adrian.
"Yes, he has vanished completely and in spite of all enquiries cannot be found."
"Are you sure he went to seek assistance, or—fled?" asked Adrian in a measured tone.
"You wrong him by such a thought," said Olive loyally. "Adrian Lancaster is not the man to fly from the consequence of his own misdeeds—no! I believe he went to seek assistance, and—and—"
"Never came back," said the pseudo Roversmire cynically.
Olive lifted her arms with a gesture of despair.
"It ill becomes you to speak in this way," she said severely. "What do you know about the impulses of youth? you are an old man, cautious, cold-blooded and calculating; he was warm, impulsive and hot-tempered. If, in a moment of anger, he thought he had committed a crime, was it therefore a very wonderful thing that he should go away secretly for a period so as to gain time to explain the matter, instead of waiting to be arrested? I blame him for his folly as much as you do, but I pity and love him all the same."
Adrian's heart smote him as he saw how nobly she defended his pusillanimous conduct, though to be sure it is easier to be brave even at the cannon's mouth than to await in cold blood for a certain arrest and a possible ignominious death.
"But I thought you said he went to seek assistance," he observed deliberately.