"I came down by train to-day. I have come to speak to you."
"You were in Germany. I left you in Germany!"
"I thought I had been there long enough: too long; and I quitted it. Archibald, I could not stay there. Had I done so, I should have been ill as you are. I think I should have died."
He said nothing for a few moments, and appeared to be lost in thought. Then he drew her face down to his, and kissed it.
"You ought not to have come over without my permission, Blanche."
"I did not travel alone. Mr. and Mrs. Arnold Ravensworth chanced to put up at the inn on their homeward route, and I took the opportunity to come over with them."
The information evidently did not please Lord Level. His brow contracted.
"You wrote me word that you had had an accident," she continued. "How could I be contented to remain away after that? So I came over: and I went to your rooms in Holles Street——"
"Why on earth did you go there?" he sharply interrupted. "When I had left them."
"But I did not know you had left them. How was I to know you had come to Marshdale if you never told me so? When I found you had left Holles Street, I went straight to Gloucester Place. Papa has just come home from Jersey."