'Would you like me to leave you?' asked Alec, who had accompanied Lucy into the drawing-room.
She gave him a glance. It seemed to her that whatever it was, his presence would help her to bear it.
'Do you wish to see me alone, Bobbie?'
'I've already told Dick and Mrs. Crowley.'
'What is it?' she asked.
Bobbie gave Dick an appealing look. It seemed too hard that he should have to break the awful news to her. He had not the heart to give her so much pain. And yet he had hurried down to the country so that he might soften the blow by his words: he would not trust to the callous cruelty of a telegram. Dick saw the agitation which made his good-humoured mouth twitch with pain, and stepped forward.
'Your father has been arrested for fraud,' he said gravely.
For a moment no one spoke. The silence was intolerable to Mrs. Crowley, and she inveighed inwardly against the British stolidity. She could not look at Lucy, but the others, full of sympathy, kept their eyes upon her. Mrs. Crowley wondered why she did not faint. It seemed to Lucy that an icy hand clutched her heart so that the blood was squeezed out of it. She made a determined effort to keep her clearness of mind.
'It's impossible,' she said at last, quietly.
'He was arrested last night, and brought up at Bow Street Police Court this morning. He was remanded for a week.'