And she, looking at him as intently as he looked at her, said only, in
the simplest possible way--

"And did you not?"

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

LOVE OR TRUST.

Caspar turned away. For a moment he felt mortally sick, as if from a
pang of acute physical pain. Distrust from an old friend is always a
hard thing to bear. And so, for a moment or two, he did not speak.

"I was not surprised," said Mrs. Romaine, quickly. "I had been looking
for something of the kind. I won't say that you were not justified--in a
certain sense. Oliver acted abominably, I know. He told me what he was
going to do beforehand."

"Told you what he was going to do?"

"Yes--to make Lesley fall in love with him. He did not mean to marry
her. He meant to gain her affections and then to--to--leave her, to
break her heart. I suppose that is what you found out. I do not wonder
that you were surprised."

"No doubt you have good authority for what you are saying," said Mr.
Brooke, very coldly, "but your account does not tally with what I have
gathered from other sources."

"From Lesley herself?"

Caspar bowed his head. He was conscious of a violent dislike to bringing
Lesley's name into the discussion. Mrs. Romaine went on rapidly.

"As to Lesley, of course I cannot say. I don't know whether he failed or
succeeded. Oliver very seldom failed with women when he tried. But, of
course, he was going to marry Ethel; and that meant that if he _had_
succeeded Lesley had been thrown over. It is not like me to put things
so baldly, is it? I see that I disgust you. But I do not know that I
need apologize. You are man of the world enough to understand that at
certain crises we are obliged to speak our minds, to face the truth
boldly and see what it means. Is it not so?"

"It may be so, but I am not aware that the present crisis demands such
plain speaking."

"Then you must be blind," said his hearer, with a burst of indignation,
"blind--blind--_blind_! Or mad? is that it? What sort of crisis do you
expect? What can be worse than the present state of things? Are not your
life and her character at stake? Why do you not take your present
opportunity and save her and yourself? Look the matter in the face and
decide?"

"I would rather not discuss it," said Caspar. "The course you indicate
is not one that could be taken by any honorable man. It is--it
is--absurd." The last word was evidently the substitute for a much
stronger one in his mind. "I see no use