“My dear child,” he said, “I was a brute to leave this to you. Go out to the others. I will follow in a moment.”
Lee, who was really enjoying herself, wheeled about with a frown. “Do go,” she said emphatically. “Do go.”
“And leave you to be insulted by a cur who doesn’t know enough to stand up in your presence. I am not quite so bad as that.” He turned to Pix, whose face had become very red; even his eyeballs were injected.
“I believe you have been told that you cannot stay here,” he said. “I am sorry to appear rude, but—you must go. There are no explanations necessary, and I should prefer that you did not reply. But I insist upon you leaving the house to-night.”
Pix jumped to his feet with hard fists. “Damn you! Damn you!” he stuttered hysterically, but excitement giving him courage as he went on: “and what’s going to become of you? Where’ll you and all this land that makes such a h—l of a difference between you and me be this time next year? It’ll be mine as it ought to be now! And where’ll you be? Who’ll be paying for your bread and butter? Who’ll be paying your gambling debts? They’ve made a nice item in my expenses, I can tell you! If you’re going to make your wife’s lover pay your debts of honour—as you swells call them—you might at least have the decency to win a little mor’n you do.”
He finished and stood panting.
Lord Barnstaple stood like a stone for a moment, then he caught the man by the collar, jerked him to an open window, and flung him out as if he had been a rat. He was very strong, as are all Englishmen of his class who spend two-thirds of their lives in the open air, and his face was merely a shade paler as he turned to Lee. But she averted her eyes hastily from his, nevertheless.
“Doubtless that man spoke the truth,” he said calmly, “but she must corroborate it,” and he went towards the stair beyond the drawing-room that led to his wife’s apartments.
Lee ran to the window. Pix was sitting up on the walk holding a handkerchief to his face. No one else was in sight. Presently he got to his feet and limped into the house. Lee went to the door opposite the great staircase and saw him toil past: it was evident that he was quite ready to slink away.
She sat down and put her hand to her eyes. It seemed to her that they must ache forever with what they had caught sight of in Lord Barnstaple’s. In that brief glance she had seen the corpse of a gentleman’s pride.