“I was foolishly paralyzed for a moment,” said Walter, “as well as unprepared for the part you would take.”
“I am very glad, Mr. Colman,” said Sefton, “that you have had the opportunity of discovering the truth! My cousin well deserves the pillory in which I know you will not place her!”
“Lady Lufa needs fear nothing from me. I have some regard left for the idea of her—the thing she is not! If you will be kind, come and help me out of the house.”
“There is no train to-night.”
“I will wait at the station for the slow train.”
“I can not press you to stay an hour where you have been so treated, but—”
“It is high time I went!” said Walter—not without the dignity that endurance gives. “May I ask you to do one thing for me, Mr. Sefton?”
“Twenty things, if I can.”
“Then please send my portmanteau after me.”
With that he left the room, and went to his own, far on the way of cure, though not quite so far as he imagined. The blood, however, was surging healthily through his veins: he had been made a fool of, but he would be a wiser man for it!