Lord Valentine bowed coldly and went away.
Captain Ernscliffe turned to the beautiful woman, who had fallen into a seat and buried her face in her jeweled hands.
"Queenie," he murmured.
She looked up at his inquiringly.
"Can you bear to hear the circumstances of your poor sister's death?" he asked, gently.
She bowed without speaking.
For answer he put into her hand Sydney's dying deposition, which Lord Valentine had returned to him.
She read it silently through. It dropped from her nerveless clasp, and she looked at him with a bitter pain in her white face.
"Oh, God, my poor, unhappy sister!" she moaned. "I have been the cause of her death."