She exclaimed:
"He is in love with that charming girl! Could you not see it? Alas, for my poor Roma!"
"Roma scarcely deserves our sympathy in the matter. She lost him by her own folly," Mr. Clarke replied impatiently, and the subject was dropped. He did not care to discuss Roma with his heart full of his own dear child.
Meanwhile Devereaux took a carriage to Liane's humble abode, full of a joy he could not repress at thought of seeing Liane again.
But he sighed to himself:
"I shall feel guilty in her presence, because I was indirectly the means of her losing Malcolm Dean! Ah, had she but loved me instead, what happiness would be mine instead of this aching loneliness of heart."
When he alighted at Mrs. Brinkley's door and rang the bell, the small family, excepting a servant, was out, and a neat maid answered the ring.
"Miss Lester?" with a comprehensive grin. "Oh, sir, she beant here! She runned away last night with her beau!" she exclaimed.
It was like a sword thrust quivering in his heart, those sudden words. He grew pale, and stared at her, muttering:
"Impossible!"