"Did Kitty give you no reason?"
"She merely said she had changed her mind."
"Changed her mind! A woman's reason," said Eversleigh, with a dreary smile.
"Kitty was not that kind of woman," declared Gilbert. "There must have been some powerful reason to make her act in this way."
The young man, his face working, strode up and down the room.
Presently he turned to his father and asked, almost fiercely—
"Can you tell me why this has happened? Do you know why she has broken off with me, and why she is to marry Bennet?"
Eversleigh moved uneasily in his chair, looked at his son with a glance of entreaty, but remained silent.
"Father," said Gilbert, "you do know something! Will you not tell me of it? Have I not a right to know? I appeal to you to tell me everything."
Eversleigh glanced this way and that, like a man seeking some path of escape.