'No,' admitted Miss Devenish. 'I came upon Colonel Audley quite by accident.'
'But we were as good as introduced, ma'am,' said the Colonel, 'for I distinctly remember my sister telling me that she would present me to Miss Devenish. But just then the King and Queen arrived, and the opportunity was lost.'
Mrs Fisher smiled indulgently, but remarked that she had never known her niece to be so scatter brained.
A couple of hours later Lady Worth, coming back into the ballroom on her husband's arm, was dumbfounded by the sight of Colonel Audley waltzing with Miss Devenish.
'Oh, so you contrived it, did you?' said Worth, also observing this circumstance.
'I did no such thing!' replied Judith. 'In fact, I had quite made up my mind it would be useless to present him to poor Lucy, straight from Bab Childe's clutches! But was there ever such a provoking man? Not but what I am very glad to see him with Lucy. Even you will admit that that would be preferable to an entanglement with Lady Barbara! I wonder who introduced him to her?'
She was soon to learn from the lady herself in what manner the Colonel had become acquainted with Miss Devenish, for Lucy joined her presently and confided the story to her sympathetic ear.
'Very disagreeable for you,' said Judith. 'I am glad Charles was at hand to be of assistance.'
'He was so very kind! But I am afraid you must have peen wondering what had become of him. Was it very wrong of me to let him have supper with us?'
Judith started. 'So that was where he was! To be pure, I could not see him at any of the tables, but there was such a crowd I might easily miss him. I make no doubt he had a much more agreeable time of it with you. '
'We had a very cosy party,' replied Miss Devenish, 'if only my aunt had not found the heat so oppressive!
Colonel Audley has such pleasant, open manners that makes one feel one has known him all one's life.'
Lady Worth agreed to it, and had the satisfaction, during their drive home, of hearing Colonel Audley comment favourably on Miss Devenish. 'A very charming, unaffected girl,' he said.
'I am glad you were able to be of service to her.'
'Pinning up her lace? No very great matter,' replied the Colonel.
'I understood she had a disagreeable adventure: some young man (she would not tell me his name) was ungentlemanly enough to force his attentions upon her, surely?'
'Oh, I had nothing to do with that!' said the Colonel. 'He was probably in his cups, and meant no serious harm.'
'She is unfortunately situated in having an aunt too indolent to chaperon her as she should, and an uncle whose birth and manners cannot add to her consequence. The fact of her being an heiress makes her very generally sought after!
'An enviable position!' said the Colonel.
'Ah, you do not know! But I was an heiress myself, and I can tell you it was sometimes a very unenviable position.'
Worth said, with a note of amusement in his voice: 'My position was certainly so, but that you experienced anything but the most profound enjoyment comes as news to me.'
She was betrayed into a laugh, but said: 'Well, perhaps I did enjoy teasing you at least, but recollect that I was never a shy creature like Lucy.'
'I recollect that perfectly,' said the Earl.
'Is Miss Devenish shy? I did not find her so,' said the Colonel. 'Shy girls are the devil, for they won't talk, and have such a habit of blushing that one is for ever thinking one has said something shocking. I found Miss Devenish perfectly conversable.'
Judith was satisfied. The Colonel, though ready to discuss the fete, had apparently forgotten Barbara Childe's existence. Not one word of admiration for her crossed his lips; her name was not mentioned.
'Julian, what a mercy! I don't believe he can have liked her after all!' confided her ladyship later, in the privacy of her own bedroom. 'Indeed, I might have trusted to his excellent good sense. Did you notice that he did not once speak of her?'
'I did,' replied the Earl somewhat grimly. 'Well?'
He looked at her, smiling, and took her chin in his hand. 'You are an ever-constant source of delight to me, my love. Did you know?' he said, kissing her.
Judith returned this embrace with great readiness, but asked: 'Why? Have I said something silly?'
'Very silly,' Worth assured her tenderly.
'How horrid you are! Tell me at once!'
'My adorable simpleton, Charles induced no less a personage than the Prince of Orange to present him to she most striking woman in the room, seized not one but two waltzes which I have not the least doubt were bespoken days ago by less fortunate suitors, and comes away at the end of the evening with apparently not one word to say of a lady whom even you will admit to be of quite extraordinary beauty.'
'Oh!' she said. 'Is that a bad sign, do you think?'
'The worst!' he answered.
She was shaken, but said stoutly: 'Well, I don't believe it. Charles has great good sense. I am perfectly at ease.'
Had she been privileged to observe Colonel Audley's actions not very many hours later her faith in his good sense might have suffered a shock. The Colonel's staff training had made him expert in obtaining desired information, and he had not wasted his time at the fete. While his sister-in-law still lay sleeping, he was up, and in the Earl's stables. Seven o'clock saw him cantering gently down the Allee Verte, beyond the walls of the town, mounted on a blood mare reserved for his brother's exclusive use.
Nor was this energy wasted. The edge had scarcely gone from the mare's morning freshness before the Colonel was rewarded by the sight of a slim figure, in a habit of cerulean blue, cantering ahead of him, unattended by any groom, and mounted on a raking grey hunter.
The Colonel gave the mare her head, and in two minutes was abreast of the grey. Lady Barbara, hearing the flying hooves, had turned her head, and immediately urged the grey to a gallop. Down the deserted Allee raced the horses, between two rows of thick lime trees, and with the still waters of the canal shining on their left.
'To the bridge!' called Barbara.
The Colonel held the mare in a little. 'Done! What will you wager?'
'Anything you please!' she said recklessly.
'Too rash! I might take an unfair advantage!'
'Pooh!' she returned.
They flew on, side by side, until in the distance the bridge leading over the canal to the Laekon road came into sight. Then the Colonel relaxed his grip and allowed the Doll to lengthen her stride. For a moment or two the grey kept abreast, but the pace was too swift for her to hold. The mare pulled ahead, flashed on up the avenue, was checked just short of the bridge, and reached it, dancing on her hooves and snatching a little at the bit.
Barbara came up like a thunderbolt, and reined in, panting. 'Oh, by God! Three lengths!' she called out. 'What do I lose?'
The Colonel leaned forward in the saddle to pat the Doll's neck. Under the brim of his low-cocked hat his eyes laughed into Barbara's. 'I wish it might be your heart!'
'My dear sir, don't you know I haven't one? Come now! In all seriousness?'
He looked at her thoughtfully. She had had the audacity to cram over her flaming curls a hat like an English officer's forage cap. She wore it at a raffish angle, the leathern peak almost obscuring the Vision of one merry eye. Her habit was severely plain, with no more than two rows of silver buttons adorning it, but the cravat round her throat was deeply edged with lace, its ends thrust through a buttonhole.
'One of your gloves,' said the Colonel, and held out his hand.
She pulled it off at once, and tossed it to him. He caught it, and tucked it into the breast of his coat.
She wheeled her mount, and prepared to retrace her steps. The Colonel fell in beside her at a walking pace.
'Do you collect gloves, Colonel?'
