'This room, Stanley, dear?' 'Yes, this room will answer very well,' he said, looking round. 'We can't be overheard, it is so large. Very well, darling, listen.' CHAPTER LXII. THE CAPTAIN EXPLAINS WHY MARK WYLDER ABSCONDED. 'How delicious these violets are!' said Stanley, leaning for a moment over the fragrant purple dome that crowned a china stand on the marble table they were passing. 'You love flowers, Dorkie. Every perfect woman is, I think, a sister of Flora's. You are looking pale--you have not been ill? No! I'm very glad you say so. Sit down for a moment and listen, darling. And first I'll tell you, upon my honour, what Rachel has been worrying me about.' Dorcas sate beside him on the sofa, and he placed his slender arm affectionately round her waist. 'You must know, Dorkie, that before his sudden departure, Mark Wylder promised to lend William, his brother, a sum sufficient to relieve him of all his pressing debts.' 'Debts! I never knew before that he had any,' exclaimed Dorcas. 'Poor William! I am so sorry.' 'Well, he has, like other fellows, only he can't get away as easily, and he has been very much pressed since Mark went, for he has not yet lent him a guinea, and in fact Rachel says she thinks he is in danger of being regularly sold out. She does not say she knows it, but only that she suspects they are in a great fix about money.' 'Well, you must know that _I_ was the sole cause of Mark Wylder's leaving the country.' '_You_, Stanley!' 'Yes, _I_, Dorkie. I believe I thought I was doing a duty; but really I was nearly mad with _jealousy_, and simply doing my utmost to drive a rival from _your_ presence. And yet, without hope for myself, _desperately_ in love.' Dorcas looked down and smiled oddly; it was a sad and bitter smile, and seemed to ask whither has that desperate love, in so short a time, flown? 'I know I was right. He was a stained man, and was liable at any moment to be branded. It was villainous in him to seek to marry you. I told him at last that, unless he withdrew, your friends should know all. I expected he would show fight, and that a meeting would follow; and I really did not much care whether I were killed or not. But he went, on the contrary, rather quietly, threatening to pay me off, however, though he did not say how. He's a cunning dog, and not very soft-hearted; and has no more conscience than that,' and he touched his finger to the cold summit of a marble bust.