"My lord," he said, "leave him to me. If force is necessary, I will
punish him."
Jasper smiled.
"You wrong me, Shelton," he said gently; "and not only me, but Adrien,
whom you pretend to care for. I have stood his true friend, as he knows,
and have done my best to keep trouble from him, when, indeed, none other
could have done so. But I suppose this is all the gratitude I can expect
from you for the discharge of friendship's duties. Adrien will no longer
be of the fashionable world, you think, after yesterday's case; and it
is high time to get rid of his humble friend, Jasper Vermont."
Adrien, who had been talking to Lady Constance, now glanced appealingly
towards Mortimer; but with a gesture, as if to silence him, Shelton
turned to Vermont again.
"Friend!" he exclaimed bitterly. "A pretty friend! But no more of this.
I advise you to leave the Castle while you are safe, for we have
sufficient proof here to send you to penal servitude."
"Yes," Lord Barminster repeated, "leave the house at once. If I find you
within my grounds an hour hence, I will thrash you within an inch of
your life, old man as I am.
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