Errington made no reply--he had only one idea in his mind,--the
determination to chastise and thoroughly disgrace Sir Francis. "I'll
hound him out of the clubs!" he thought indignantly. "His own set shall
know what a liar he is--and if I can help it he shall never hold up his
head again!"

Entirely occupied as he was with these reflections, he paid no heed to
anything that was going on in the street, and he scarcely heard
Lorimer's last observation. So that he was utterly surprised and taken
aback, when he, with Lorimer, was compelled to come to a halt before the
very door of the jeweller, Lennox's landlord, while the two policemen
cleared a passage through the crowd, saying in low tones, "Stand aside,
gentlemen, please!--stand aside," thus making gradual way for four
bearers, who, as was now plainly to be seen, carried a common wooden
stretcher covered with a cloth, under which lay what seemed, from its
outline, to be a human figure.

"What's the matter here?" asked Lorimer, with a curious cold thrill
running through him as he put the simple question.

One of the policemen answered readily enough.

"An accident, sir. Gentleman badly hurt. Down at Charing Cross
Station--tried to jump into a train when it had started,--foot
caught,--was thrown under the wheels and dragged along some
distance--doctor says he can't live, sir."

"Who is he,--what's his name?"

"Lennox, sir--leastways, that's the name on his card--and this is the
address. Sir Francis Lennox, I believe it is."

Errington uttered a sharp exclamation of horror,--at that moment the
jeweller came out of the recesses of his shop with uplifted hands and
bewildered countenance.

"An accident? Good Heavens!--Sir Francis! Up-stairs!--take him
up-stairs!" Here he addressed the bearers. "You should have gone round
to the private entrance--he mustn't be seen in the shop--frightening
away all my customers--here, pass through!--pass through, as quick as
you can!"

And they did pass through,--carrying their crushed burden tenderly along
by the shining glass cases and polished counters, where glimmered and
flashed jewels of every size and lustre for the adorning of the children
of this world,--slowly and carefully, step by step, they reached the
upper floor,--and there, in a luxurious apartment furnished with almost
feminine elegance, they lifted the inanimate form from the stretcher and
laid it down, still shrouded, on a velvet sofa, removing the last number
o