And the young man, ashamed of his own action, but more perplexed every moment, as he considered, from every point of view, his singular adventure, left the Blue Lion within the next twenty minutes, and returned to town to relate his experience to Otto Conybeare and Willie Jordan.
CHAPTER VIII.
Now the intention of the two conspirators, who were conspiring, without Clifford’s knowledge, to cure him of his infatuation, was to keep this luckless adventure from coming to his ears. But it leaked out in spite of them; and one evening, when they were enjoying their pipes in the rooms they shared together, they found themselves confronted with King himself, in a state of boiling indignation.
It was in vain they tried to prove to him how laudable their intentions had been, how much for the good of the young lady herself it would have been if they could have cleared up the ugly mystery.
“If you could have cleared it up, no one would have been more thankful, more grateful than I,” retorted Clifford, whose face had grown haggard with anxiety, with unhappiness on Nell’s account. “But to send a young fool, without tact, without delicacy, like Lowndes, spying about, and making a thundering idiot of himself—why, it was more what you would expect of a couple of schoolboys than of two full-grown men out of Hanwell!”
“As to that,” replied Conybeare, mildly, “I don’t know that Lowndes has less tact than anybody else. I must say that, in the circumstances, I should have acted very much as he did; at least as far as following the woman to the room and through the window was concerned. One doesn’t stand upon strict ceremony with a thief, even a female one.”
“Nell Claris is not a thief!” cried Clifford, with excitement. “I would not believe it if all the judges and magistrates in England told me so!”
“Ah, that’s it! You will not believe. But, my dear fellow, do you think Lowndes had anything to gain by telling a story which showed him in such a ridiculous and undignified light?”
“I think that if he had been a man of more judgment and tact, he would have found out something worth finding out, and not have made an ass of himself during the proceedings.”
“Now, my dear Clifford, you are unreasonable, as all persons suffering from your ailment are,” said Conybeare, rising, and standing in a judicial attitude in front of the fire. “Because you admire this young woman, you think she is incapable of a crime which has, in my opinion, been traced clearly home to her. If the woman whom Lowndes saw and followed was not Miss Claris, how was it that she made, when pursued, straight for Miss Claris’s room? Could Miss Claris have a bedfellow—there was only one bed in the room—without knowing it? If she had a bedfellow, would not some person in the house have been acquainted with the fact, and would not the sudden disappearance of this person arouse suspicion even in the innocent mind of Miss Claris?”