Archibald Sherbrooke was very pale now. He was a proud, brave young man, and all the hot blood in his composition had been aroused by this sudden and unexpected attack from the stranger to whom he had been introduced by a mutual friend.
He had uttered words which, under any other circumstances, would have made him fell him to the ground and chastise him for his insolence.
But he controlled himself, for he saw that Ralph was a noble fellow, although he had constituted himself the champion of the woman whom he still loved with a deathless love, and meant to avenge her wrongs if he was assured that he had found the right man.
He reasoned, too, that he must be laboring under the same mistake of which Star had been the victim, and that the only way to deal with him would be to explain just how matters stood.
Besides, a wild hope was springing up in his heart that through him he might be able to find her whom he had lost, and whom he never ceased for one moment to love.
He laid his hand on Ralph’s arm, and the young man felt it tremble with the emotion which thrilled him.
“Come with me,” he said, in a low, earnest voice, “where we can be by ourselves, and I will talk this matter over with you. There has been a terrible mistake, and my two names have been the cause of it all. I loved Star Gladstone devotedly; I love her to-day. I have done her no wrong, as I will explain to you, and nothing would have kept me from her side if she had not hid herself from me. Come.”
He linked his arm familiarly within Ralph’s, and drew him from the room to a small antechamber leading from the hall, and shut the door, while the young man was dumb with astonishment at what he heard, and began to feel as if he had got himself into a very unpleasant predicament by his rashness.
CHAPTER XXXIV.
MUTUAL EXPLANATIONS.
“Have I made a mistake? Have I wronged you?” Ralph Meredith asked, when the door was shut, while he gazed blankly at his companion, and feeling convinced in his heart that no man could show the emotion which Lord Carrol manifested at the mention of Star, and willfully betray her.