He turned to Mrs. Crowley, whom he liked because she was American, rich, and a widow.
'I'm grateful, too,' she murmured, as she bade him farewell. 'A clergyman always helps one so much to bear other people's misfortunes.'
Canon Spratte smiled and made a mental note of the remark, which he thought would do very well from his own lips.
'Where is Lucy?' asked Mrs. Crowley, when he had gone.
Lady Kelsey threw up her hands with the feeling, half of amazement, half of annoyance, which a very emotional person has always for one who is self-restrained.
'She's sitting in her room, reading. She's been reading all day. Heaven only knows how she can do it. I tried, and all the letters swam before my eyes. It drives me mad to see how calm she is.'
They began to talk of the immediate future. Lady Kelsey had put a large sum at Lucy's disposal, and it was arranged that the two children should take their father to some place in the south of France where he could rest after the terrible ordeal.
'I don't know what they would all have done without you,' said Mrs. Crowley. 'You have been a perfect angel.'
'Nonsense,' smiled Lady Kelsey. 'They're my only relations in the world, except Bobbie, who's very much too rich as it is, and I love Lucy and George as if they were my own children. What is the good of my money except to make them happy and comfortable?'
Mrs. Crowley remembered Dick's surmise that Lady Kelsey had loved Fred Allerton, and she wondered how much of the old feeling still remained. She felt a great pity for the kind, unselfish creature. Lady Kelsey started as she heard the street door slam. But it was only George who entered.
'Oh, George, where have you been? Why didn't you come in to luncheon?'
He looked pale and haggard. The strain of the last fortnight had told on him enormously, and it was plain that his excitement was almost unbearable.
'I couldn't eat anything. I've been walking about, waiting for the damned hours to pass. I wish I hadn't promised father not to go into court. Anything would have been better than this awful suspense. I saw the man who's defending him when they adjourned for luncheon, and he told me it was all right.'
'Of course it's all right. You didn't imagine that your father would be found guilty.'
'Oh, I knew he wouldn't have done a thing like that,' said George impatiently. 'But I can't help being frightfully anxious. The papers are awful. They've got huge placards out:
George shivered with horror.
'Oh, it's awful!' he cried.
Lady Kelsey began to cry again, and Mrs. Crowley sat in silence, not knowing what to say. George walked about in agitation.
'But I know he's not guilty,' moaned Lady Kelsey.
'If he's guilty or not he's ruined me,' said George. 'I can't go up to Oxford again after this. I don't know what the devil's to become of me. We're all utterly disgraced. Oh, how could he! How could he!'
'Oh, George, don't,' said Lady Kelsey.
But George, with a weak man's petulance, could not keep back the bitter words that he had turned over in his heart so often since the brutal truth was told him.
'Wasn't it enough that he fooled away every penny he had, so that we're simply beggars, both of us, and we have to live on your charity? I should have thought that would have satisfied him, without getting locked up for being connected in a beastly bucketshop swindle.'
'George, how can you talk of your father like that!'
He gave a sort of sob and looked at her with wild eyes. But at that moment a cab drove up, and, he sprang on to the balcony.
'It's Dick Lomas and Bobbie. They've come to tell us.'
He ran to the door and opened it. They walked up the stairs.
'Well?' he cried. 'Well?'
'It's not over yet. We left just as the judge was summing up.'
'Damn you!' cried George, with an explosion of sudden fury.
'Steady, old man,' said Dick.
'Why didn't you stay?' moaned Lady Kelsey.
'I couldn't,' said Dick. 'It was too awful.'
'How was it going?'
'I couldn't make head or tail of it. My mind was in a whirl. I'm an hysterical old fool.'
Mrs. Crowley went up to Lady Kelsey and kissed her.
'Why don't you go and lie down for a little while, dear,' she said. 'You look positively exhausted.'
* * *
'I have a racking headache,' groaned Lady Kelsey.
