Lancaster hesitated, not being willing to reveal his deepest and most sacred feelings even unto this staunch friend. "I don't know to what lengths my infatuation might have carried me."
"Oh then you did love her?" said Jarman, alertly.
"That depends on what you call love. I certainly had a fancy for her. I thought her pretty and fascinating, and she was always on her best behaviour with me. I think she liked me more than a little."
Eustace laid one big finger on the _Daily Telegraph_ significantly. "It looks like it," said he.
"Berry's put her against me," replied Frank in disturbed tones. "I'll swear that she would never lie like that, unless she was put up to it in some way. She _did_ like me, although she was always too selfish to love anyone but herself. Jewels and laces, carriage and pair, admiration and cutting a dash--that was what Fairy Fan desired. I could not offer her these things, so she was careful not to compromise herself with me in any way. I never got so far as asking her to marry me, though I don't know but what I mightn't have been such an ass had I not changed my mind."
"And what caused you to change your mind, my son?"
Frank looked oddly at the big man, and then fixed his eyes studiously on his pipe, while making an evasive reply. "I saw someone I liked better," he explained, "and then my admiration for Fairy Fan seemed to vanish like a cloud of smoke. After I saw that other face I thought no more of Fan, and was able to tell Starth with a clear mind that I didn't care about her. I'd have danced at his wedding with pleasure."
"H'm! And who is the--no, I have no right to ask that. But to continue with the lady's evidence. We know the the first. And the second?"
"I never expressed any wish to her that Starth should die. I told her, certainly, that I sometimes carried a revolver when slumming. But I never mentioned that it belonged to my father, nor did I show it to her. Lastly, I never said to Fan that my father's name was the same as my own."
"Was it?"