“Not until I have apologized for my rash words to you, my lord,” Ralph said, in a manly, straightforward way, and advancing to him, convinced now of his honor, and that he had never intended Star even a thought of harm. “Miss Gladstone,” he continued, “confided the story of her grief to me only a short time before I sailed for Europe, although she did not enter into particulars very minutely. I think she had not the slightest idea that I should ever meet you, but I made up my mind at the time that if I ever did come in contact with ‘Archibald Sherbrooke,’ which was the only name by which she designated you, that I should make him answer for the wrong which I believed he had done her. I saw you to-day with a lady in the chapel of Henry the Seventh, at Westminster Abbey. I heard her call you by the name that I remembered only too well, and was convinced I had found Miss Gladstone’s recreant knight. I resolved at once to remain in London beyond the time I had originally intended, look you up, and call you to account for what you had done. You were at the concert in the Albert Hall this evening, but I had no thought of meeting you when I came hither, at the invitation of my friend Alden. You can imagine, perhaps, something of the shock which I experienced when he introduced you as Lord Carrol. This will explain why I refused your hand, and why I addressed you in the way I did.” “I cannot blame you in the least, under the circumstances,” Lord Carrol returned, smiling. “Your words, however,” Ralph went on, “regarding the young lady in question, convince me that you are entirely guiltless, and have been as great a sufferer from an unfortunate misunderstanding as herself. I trust you will accept my explanation, and also my hand with it,” he concluded, extending his hand to the young peer. Lord Carrol grasped and shook it warmly. “I have no right to harbor any ill-will toward you for espousing so gallantly the cause of one who is very dear to me,” he said, cordially; “and perhaps, after all, this meeting, which at first promised to end in a stormy manner, may be the means of restoring happiness to two very unhappy people.” “I feel assured that such will be the case,” Ralph answered, but there was a keen pain in his heart, notwithstanding. Lord Carrol now wheeled a chair forward and made him sit down; then, taking another near him, he related in substance what he had already told Mr. Richards regarding his relations with Star, the erroneous conclusions she had jumped at upon learning of his title, her refusal to allow him to explain his position to her, and her flight on the morning after her painful discovery.