“I think you had better let me put you up,” he said.  “You can sleep in my room; I’m not wanting it for to-night.  There, sit down.  You mustn’t be a fool, you know.  You are played out, and want a rest.”

“I—­I’m all right,” Rupert said.

He made as if he would withdraw his arm, but changed his intention, and stood tense, battling with himself.

“Oh, man!” he burst out at last, hoarsely, “you—­you don’t know what a—­what a—­cur I feel!  I—­I—­I—­” Words failed him abruptly; he flung round and sank down again at the table with his head on his arms, too humbled to remember his manhood any longer.

“My dear fellow, don’t!” Mordaunt said.  He put his hand on the boy’s heaving shoulders and kept it there.  “There’s no sense in letting yourself go.  The thing is done, and there is no more to be said, since neither you nor I can undo it.  Come, boy!  Pull yourself together.  I am going to forget it, and you can do the same.  I think you had better go to bed now.  We shall have time for a talk in the morning.  What?” He stooped to catch a half-audible sentence.

“You’ll never forget it,” gasped Rupert.

“Yes, I shall—­if you will let me.  It rests with you.  I never wish to speak or think of it again.  I have plenty of other things to think about, and so have you.  That’s settled, then.  I am going to see if I can find you something to eat.”

He stood up.  His face had softened to kindness.  He patted Rupert’s shoulder before he turned away.

“Buck up, old chap!” he said gently, and went with quiet tread from the room.

CHAPTER III

A FRUITLESS ERRAND

“Hullo, Jack!” Noel sprang to meet his cousin with the bound of a young panther.  “Where on earth have you come from?  My good chap, you’re positively drenched!  You’ve never walked up from the station!”

“And missed the way twice,” said Jack grimly.  He shook Noel off without ceremony.  “Where is Trevor?  I have come to see him.”

“Oh, he’s cleared out; went to town this afternoon, says he’s going to Paris to-morrow.  There’s been no end of a shine, you know.  Chris bolted last night.  Heaven only knows where she’s gone.  I think she might have told me first.”

“I can tell you,” said Jack.  “She is with Hilda at Graysdale.  I have just come from there.  Trevor is in town, you say?”

Noel nodded.  “Bertrand’s gone too, you know.  That was the beginning of it.  Trevor kicked him out for robbing him.  Beastly little thief!  I told Trevor he would long ago.  I say, you are not going again!”

Jack, still standing on the mat, was consulting his watch.  “If there is another up train to-night I must catch it.  There’s a motor here, isn’t there?  Send round word that it is wanted.”

“But there isn’t a train!” Noel protested.  “I know the last one goes at nine-fifty, and it’s past ten now.  Have you all gone raving mad?  I always thought you, anyhow, had a little sense.”