"Tell me your secret, Lancaster, and I will tell you hers. Why did you run away from Lancaster Park?"
"Because I was a coward, De Vere—that is all," bitterly.
"But why? Were you afraid that your aunt would marry you off willy-nilly to the earl's daughter?"
"Not exactly, although there was some danger of it," said Lancaster, smiling.
"There was some other reason, then? Come, old fellow, are you ashamed to confess the truth?"
"I should have been a week ago, I think I might own it now with the bribe you offered in view."
"What was it, then?" curiously.
"This: I was madly in love with Leonora West, and too selfish, or too jealous, or too great a coward, to stay and witness your happiness as her accepted lover."
"Hum! All the happiness you would have witnessed wouldn't have hurt you," ruefully. "And so you ran away like a coward! What have you been doing all this while, truant?"