Stella Rosevelt — page 332: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

326 MUTUAL EXPLANATIONS. 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 IMiss 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.” ‘‘T 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 ex- planation, and also my hand with it,” he concluded, extending his hand to the young peer. Lord Carrol grasped and shook it warmly. “*T 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.” ‘*T 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 Eomicbookszeo