Lewis’s brow flushed; controlling the angry impulse, however, he said calmly, “Your lordship cannot irritate me by such insinuations—you are aware of the alternative when you refuse to answer my letter?”
“I am, sir; you are welcome to take any course you please: I scorn your false accusations, and leave you to do your worst.”
“In that case we understand each other,” was the stern reply, and again raising his hat, Lewis passed on.
After this brief conversation he lost no time in obtaining a private interview with General Grant; scarcely, however, had he begun his statement when the General interrupted him by observing—
“I need not trouble you to proceed; Mr. Arundel; I am in possession of all the facts you are about to detail—Lord Bellefield has given me a full explanation of the matter, and I can assure you that you are labouring under an erroneous impression. The main facts of the story are, I am sorry to say, true; but the chief actor in the affair was a rascally valet of Lord Bellefield’s, who assumed his master’s name and apparel in order to accomplish his nefarious designs.”
“But I myself witnessed an interview between Lord Bellefield and the poor girl on the morning after the ball,” returned Lewis in surprise; “I should not have brought such a charge on insufficient grounds, believe me.”
“Your zeal, sir,” replied the General—“for I am willing to attribute the step you have taken solely to misdirected zeal—has assuredly led you into error. Lord Bellefield, who seems by some means aware of this idea of yours——”
“I mentioned the fact that I had seen him in a letter which I addressed to him on the subject,” interrupted Lewis. “It is only fair when you accuse a man of any fault to explain the grounds on which you believe him to have committed it.”
“Quite right, sir, quite right,” rejoined the General with an approving nod; “it is owing to the fair and manly way in which you have stated this matter that Lord Bellefield has been enabled to clear himself to my entire satisfaction. In regard to the interview to which you refer, he has recalled to me the fact that he spent the morning in question almost entirely in my company; we were engaged upon matters connected with the approaching election—you must therefore have mistaken the identity of the person you imagined to be him.”
“I am not apt to make such mistakes,” replied Lewis dryly, feeling convinced that the story was a clever fabrication from beginning to end, while, at the same time, he was becoming aware that for him to prove it to be so would be next to impossible.