"I will not refuse you," was his answer: "and I cannot dictate to you; but I think it would be better for you to remain here, and let Lord Level know that you are coming."
Lady Level shook her head. "Good advice, Arnold, no doubt, and I thank you; all the same, I shall go down as I have said."
"You will be very much to blame, sir, if you help on this mad scheme by so much as a sixpence," spoke the Major.
"Papa, listen to a word of common sense," she interposed. "I could go to a dozen places tomorrow, and get any amount of money. I could go to Lord Level's agents, and say I am Lady Level, and they would supply me. I could go to Mr. Brightman, and he would supply me—Charles Strange is in Paris again. I could go to other places. But I prefer to have it from Mr. Ravensworth, and save myself trouble and annoyance. It is not a pleasant thing for a peeress of the realm—as you just now put it—to go about borrowing a five-pound note," she concluded with a faint smile.
"Very well, Blanche. If ill comes of this wild step of yours, remember you were warned against it. I can say no more."
Gathering up his cloak as he spoke, Major Carlen threw it over his shoulders, and went forth, muttering, into the night.
Mr. Ravensworth called his wife, and she took Lady Level upstairs to a hastily-prepared chamber. Sitting down in a low chair, and throwing off her bonnet, Lady Level, worn out with all the excitement she had gone through, burst into a flood of hysterical tears.
"Tell me all about it," said Mary Ravensworth soothingly, drawing the poor wearied head to rest on her shoulder.
"They meant to stop me from going down to my husband, and I will go," sobbed Blanche half defiantly. "If he has met with an accident, and is ill, I ought to be there."
"Of course you ought," said Mary warmly. "But what is all the trouble about?—And what was it that you heard, and did not like, in Holles Street?"