She leaned forward.

“What is the matter, my lord? I did all I could.”

“Yes—ah, yes.”

He was looking at her very strangely. “Did you not guess where I had gone?”

She pressed her handkerchief to her lips and her lids fluttered in a weary manner.

Lord Stair came to the other side of the table.

“So, Ulrica, you stay to share my fallen fortunes?” he asked in a low voice.

She looked at him calmly.

“Did you think anything else of me?”

“My thoughts!” he said wildly. “Let my thoughts go—I know not what I thought—”