Mr Rashleigh opened this document in the sight of many persons; its tone of contempt galled him to the quick, and, forgetting all consequences but the desire of revenge, he rushed at once to the scene of his disgrace. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ I fainted--some one lifted me from the floor. It was Lyle--he carried me into Lady Amabel's boudoir; she was there, walking nervously up and down. She received me with tears. Lyle withdrew. I felt grateful for his sympathy, and the kind and delicate manner in which he had expressed it. CHAPTER FOURTEEN. STRIFE. I saw Clarence Fairfax but once again. The exposure which had taken place separated the Rashleighs for ever. Challenges were interchanged between the gentlemen at the same hour. The selfish woman who had thus brought disgrace on her husband, herself, and the man she had infatuated by her art, lost all prudence in her ungovernable state of excitement, and wrote a passionate appeal, from her retirement near Newlands, entreating Captain Fairfax to see her once again. But Sir Adrian had placed his nephew under arrest. Mrs Rashleigh had the hardihood to endeavour to force her way into his quarters by night; she was repelled from the door at the point of the bayonet, the sentry having due orders to prevent the ingress of such a visitor. In vain she implored, in vain she stormed. Captain Walton kept watch upon his brother aide-de-camp within, and would not let him yield to the temptress. Clarence resigned his appointment on his uncle's staff, and was ordered to England forthwith. Lady Amabel and I were in the library with Sir Adrian when his nephew entered to take his leave. It was before official hours, and such a meeting was wholly unexpected on our part, nor perhaps had he anticipated it. Lady Amabel could not pass him by; her heart was full--her eyes swimming with tears as he caught her hand. "Dear aunt," said he, "_you_ will wish me well." "Sit down, Amabel; sit down, Miss Daveney," said Sir Adrian. "Yes, Clarence, they will both wish you well; I do, from my soul; I take some blame to myself in this wretched business; but what is done cannot be undone. You have been the victim of that wretched, worthless being, whom it would be an insult to name here. Sit down, my lad, amongst us again; we are all deucedly sorry to part with you; when we meet again, you will be all the wiser for this business, I hope. I hardly like to let you go, but I suppose I must. I shall not get on at all well without you, my dear boy. Confound that devil. "Well, Amabel, it is enough to make any one swear; for, now that she is fairly down, every one comes forward to say that she ought to have been banished from society long ago. I don't pity her one bit," continued the General, rising and pacing the chamber; "but I am heartily vexed to think she has seduced my sister's son, and in this affair _she_ is the seducer, not Clarence."