She looked up at him with a dull, numbed expression of inquiry which he understood and answered. "You will see. I have thought of everything. I foresaw that you would yield and have planned everything." The door opened as he spoke, and Scrivell came in followed by Frank, who hurled Scrivell out of the way and sprang before Jasper, inarticulate with rage. But before he could find breath for words, his eyes fell upon Stella's face, and a change came over him. "What does this mean?" he stammered. "What do you mean, Mr. Adelstone, by this outrage? Do you know that I have been kept a prisoner----" Jasper interrupted him calmly, quietly, with an exasperating smile. "You are a prisoner no longer, my dear Frank!" "How dare you!" exclaimed the enraged boy, and he raised his cane. It would have fallen across Jasper's face, for he made no attempt to ward it, but Stella sprang between them, and it fell on her shoulder. "Frank," she moaned rather than cried, "you--you must not." "Stella," he exclaimed, "stand away from him. I think I shall kill him." She laid her hand upon his arm and looked up into his face with, ah! what an anguish of sorrowful pity and love. "Frank," she breathed, pressing her hand to her bosom, "listen to me. He--Mr. Adelstone was--was right. He has done all for--for the best. You--you will beg his pardon." He stared at her as if he thought that she had taken leave of her senses. "What! What do you say!" he cried, below his breath. "Are you mad, Stella?" She put her hand to her brow with a strange, weird smile. "I wish--I almost think I am. No, Frank, not another word. You must not ask why. I cannot tell you. Only this, that--that Mr. Adelstone has explained, and that--that"--her voice faltered--"we must go back." "Go back? Not go to Leycester?" he demanded, incredulous and astonished. "Do you know what you are saying?" She smiled, a smile more bitter than tears. "Yes, I know. Bear with me, Frank." "Bear with you? What does she mean? Do you mean to say that you have allowed yourself to be persuaded by this--this hound----?" "Frank! Frank!" "Do not stop him," came the quiet, overstrained voice of 'the hound.' "This hound, I said," repeated the boy, bitterly. "Has he persuaded you to break faith with Leycester? It is impossible. You would not, _could_ not, be so--so bad." Stella looked at him, and the tears sprang to her eyes. "Have pity, and--and--send him away," she said, without turning to Jasper. He went up to Frank, who drew back as he approached, as if he were something loathsome. "You are making your cousin unhappy by this conduct," he said. "It is as she says. She has changed her mind."