He had no love for Lora's relations. He considered that they had treated him badly. He was as well-born as they were, and had been better off until Xenie had married the old millionaire.
Yet they had flouted his love for Lora and refused to sanction an engagement between them, hoping to send her to the city and find a richer market for her beauty. So it was with a smile of scorn he contemplated the agitation of the beautiful young widow.
"Yes, Mrs. St. John, it is Jack Mainwaring," he said, grimly. "Don't be alarmed, I won't eat you."
Xenie regarded him with a stare of haughty amazement.
"I do not apprehend such a calamity," she said, icily. "But—I thought you dead."
"Yes," he said. "I have passed through some terrible disasters, but luckily I escaped with my life. You will not care to hear about that, though, so I will not digress. I will say that I came up from the country this morning. I went down there yesterday to look for Lora. You will wonder, perhaps, why I am here this morning."
Mrs. Carroll had sent the nurse away as soon as he entered. They were alone, she and Xenie and the child, with the handsome, desperate young man, looking as if he hovered on the verge of madness.
He had not even spoken to his mother-in-law, who regarded him with a species of terror.
Xenie fell back into her seat at the mention of Lora's name. Her lip quivered and her eyes filled.
"You—you surely have not come for Lora," she said, and her voice was almost a moan of pain. "You surely must have heard——"