"Oh, dear, Sir Dudley," cried the maid, as she saw him hastening along the corridor, "oh, I 'm sure, sir, how you 'll alarm my lady if she sees you so flurried!"
"Stand out of the way, woman!" said he, roughly, endeavoring to push her to one side, for she had actually placed herself between him and the door of the drawing-room.
"Surely, sir, you'll not terrify my lady! Surely, Sir Dudley--"
Despite her cries, for they had now become such, Broughton pushed her rudely from the spot, and entered the room.
Great was his astonishment to find Lady Broughton, whom he had left so ill, not only up, but dressed as if for the promenade; her face was flushed, and her eye restless and feverish; and her whole manner exhibited the highest degree of excitement.
Broughton threw down his hat upon the table, and then, returning to the door, locked and bolted it.
"Good Heavens, Dudley!" exclaimed she, in a voice of terror, "what has happened?"
"Everything!" said he; "utter ruin! The whole crew of creditors are in full chase after me, and in a few hours we shall be stripped of all we possess."
She drew a long full breath as she listened; and had her husband been in a mood to mark it, he might have seen how lightly his terrible tidings affected her.
"I must fly! Taperton--he's in the carriage below--says France, at least for some weeks, till we can make some compromise or other; but I have one debt that must be acquitted before I leave."
There was a terrible significance in the words, and she was sick to the heart as she asked, "What, and to whom?"
"Radchoffsky!" cried he, savagely; "that scoundrel whom I trusted like a brother!"
Lady Broughton fell back, and for a moment her motionless limbs and pallid features seemed like fainting; but with a tremendous effort rallying herself, she said, "Go on!"
"He betrayed me,--told every circumstance of my book! And the mare I had backed for more than thirty thousand is dying this instant; so that I am not only ruined, but dishonored!"
She sat with wide staring eyes and half-open lips while he spoke, nor did she seem, in the fearful confusion of her fear, to understand fully all he said.
"Have I not spoken plainly?" said he, angrily. "Don't you comprehend me when I say that to-morrow I shall be branded as a defaulter at the settling? But enough of this. Tell Millar to get a portmanteau ready for me. I 'll start this evening; the interval is short enough for all I have to do." As he spoke, he hastened to his bedroom, and, providing himself with a case containing his duelling-pistols, he hurried downstairs, ordering the postilion to drive to the Russian Embassy.