the night was a strong indignation at having a child's rest disturbed.'
'Ah, she is a phlegmatic Scot! I have no fear of her losing her head.'
They were interrupted by the butler's coming into the room with the announcement that Lady Barbara Childe was below and wished to speak to the Earl.
Judith was astounded. She had not thought that after their encounter on the previous night Lady Barbara would dare to accost her again, let alone call at her residence. She looked at Worth, but he merely raised his eyebrows, and said: 'Well, I am at home, and perfectly ready to receive visitors. I don't understand why they are left in the hall. Beg her ladyship to come up.'
'Yes, my lord,' said the butler, his bosom swelling at the reproof. 'I should have done so in the first place . But that her ladyship desired me to carry the message.'
He withdrew, stately and outraged. The door had scarcely shut behind him when Judith's feelings got the better of her. She exclaimed: 'I wish you had sent her about her business! I do not see why I should be obliged to receive her in my house! And that you should be willing to do so gives me a very poor opinion of your loyalty to Charles!'
'I cannot think that Charles would thank me for turning Lady Barbara away from my door,' he replied.
There was no time for more; the butler opened the door and announced Barbara; and she came into the room with her long, mannish stride.
Judith rose, but before she had time to speak she was forestalled.
'I didn't mean to force myself into your presence,' Barbara said. 'I am sorry. My business is with your husband.' She paused, and a wintry, rueful smile flashed across her face. 'Oh, the devil! My curst tongue again! Don't look so stiff: I have not come to wreck your marriage.' This was said with a good deal of bitterness. She forced herself to speak more lightly, and added, looking in her clear way at Worth: 'I couldn't, could I? You at least have never succumbed to my famous charms.'
'No, never,' he replied imperturbably. 'Will you not sit down?'
'No; I do not mean to stay above a minute. The case is that I am in the devil of a quandary over my horses. Would you be so obliging as to house them for me in your stables? There is the pair I drive in my phaeton, and my mare as well.'
'Willingly,' he said. 'But - forgive me - why?'
'My brother and his wife are leaving Brussels this morning. They are gone by this time, I daresay. The house in the Rue Ducale is given up. My own groom is not to be trusted alone, and I do not care to stable the horses at the hotel. They tell me there is already such a demand for horses to carry people to Antwerp that by nightfall it will be a case of stealing what can't be hired.'
'Lord and Lady Vidal gone!' Judith exclaimed, surprised into breaking her silence.
'Oh yes!' Barbara replied indifferently. 'Gussie has been in one of her confounded takings ever since the news was brought in last night, and Vidal is very little better.'
'But you do not mean to remain here alone, surely?'
'Why not?'
'It is not fit!'
'Ah, you doubt the propriety of it! I don't care for that.' Her mouth quivered, but she controlled it. Judith noticed that she had twisted the end of her scarf tightly between her fingers and was gripping it so hard that her gloves seemed in danger of splitting. 'Both my brothers are engaged in this war,' she said. 'And Charles.'
'I had not supposed that Charles's fate was any longer a concern of yours,' Judith said.
'I am aware of that. But it is my concern, nevertheless.' She stared at Judith with haunted eyes. 'Perhaps I may never see him again. But if he comes back I shall be here.' She drew a sobbing breath, and continued in a hard voice: 'That, however, is my affair. Lord Worth, you are very obliging. My groom shall bring the horses round during the course of the day. Goodbye!' She held out her hand, but drew it back, flushing a little. 'Oh - ! You would rather not shake hands with me, I daresay!'
'I have not the least objection to shaking hands with you,' he replied, 'But I should be grateful to you if you could contrive to stop being foolish. Now sit down and try to believe that your differences with my brother leave me supremely indifferent.'
She smiled faintly, and after a brief hesitation sat down in the chair by the table. 'Well, what now?' she asked.
'Are you staying with friends? May I have your direction?'
'I am at the Hotel de Belle Vue.'
'Indeed! Alone?'
'Yes, alone, if you discount my maid.'
'It will not do,' he said. 'If you mean to remain in Brussels you must stay here.'
She looked at him rather blankly. 'You must be mad!'
'I am quite sane, I assure you. It can never be thought desirable for a young and unprotected female to be staying in a public hotel. In a foreign capital, and in such unsettled times as these, it would be the height of folly.'
She gave a short laugh. 'My dear man, you forget that I am not an inexperienced miss just out the schoolroom! I am a widow, and if it comet to folly, why, I make a practice of behaving foolishly!'
'Just so, but that is no reason why you should not mend your ways.'
She got up. 'This is to no purpose. It is unthinkable that I should stay in your house. You are extremely kind, but -'
'Not at all,' he interrupted. 'I am merely protecting myself from the very just anger I am persuaded my brother would feel were he to find you putting up at a hotel when he returns to Brussels.'
She said unsteadily: 'Please - ! We will not speak of Charles. You don't wish me to make a fool of myself, imagine.'
He did not answer; he was looking at Judith. She was obliged to recognise the propriety of his invitation. She did not like it, but good breeding compelled her to say, 'My husband is right. I will have a room prepared at once, Lady Barbara. I hope you will not find it very disagreeable: we shall do our best to make your stay comfortable.'
'Thank you. It is not I who would find such a visit disagreeable. You dislike me cordially: I do not blame you. I dislike myself.'
Judith coloured, and replied in a cool voice: 'I have not always done so. There have been times when I have liked you very well.'
'You hated me for what I did to Charles.'
'Yes.'
'O God, if I could undo - if I could have it back, all this past month! It is useless! I behaved like the devil I am. That wretched quarrel! The very knowledge that I was in the wrong drove me to worse conduct! I have never been answerable to anyone for my misdeeds: there is a fiendish quality in me that revolts at the veriest hint of - but how should you understand? It is not worthy of being understood!'
She covered her face with her hands. Worth walked across the room to the door, and went out.
Judith said in a kinder tone: 'I do understand in part. I was not always so docile as you think me. But Charles! There is such a sweetness of temper, such nobility of mind -'
'Stop!' Barbara cried fiercely. 'Do you think I don't know it?' I knew it when he first came up to me, and I looked into his eyes, and loved him. I knew myself to be unworthy! The only thing I did that I am not ashamed of now was to try not to let him persuade me into becoming engaged to him. That impulse was the noblest I have ever felt. Though I knew I should not, I yielded. I wanted him, and all my life I have taken what I wanted, without thought or compunction!' She gave a wild laugh. 'You despise me, but you should also pity me, for I have enough heart to wish I had more.'
'I do pity you,' Judith said, considerably move 'But having yielded -'
'Yes! Having yielded, why could I not submit? I do not know, unless it be that from the day I marrie Jasper Childe I swore I would never do so, never allow myself to be possessed, or governed, or even guide: Don't misunderstand me! I am not trying to find excuses for myself. The fault lies deeper: it is in my curst nature!'
'I have sometimes thought,' Judith said, after a short pause, 'that the circumstances of your engagement made it particularly trying for you. In this little town we are obliged to live in a crowded circle from which there can
