‘Are you not happy?’ he asked. ‘I am sure you are good.’
She gave her head a quick shake. ‘Oh no! At least, I mean, of course I am happy. Please do not heed me! I am in a nonsensical mood today. How beautiful Lady Barbara looks in her bronze bonnet and pelisse.’ She glanced shyly at him. ‘You must be very proud. I hope you will be very happy too.’
‘Thank you. I wonder how long it will be before I shall be wishing you happy in the same style?’ he said, with a quizzical smile.
She looked started. A blush suffused her cheeks, and her eyes brightened all at once with a spring of tears. ‘Oh no! Impossible! Please do not speak of it!’
He said in a tone of concern: ‘My dear Miss Devenish, forgive me! I had no notion of distressing you, upon my honour!’
‘You must think me very foolish!’
‘Well,’ he said, in a rallying tone, ‘do you know, I do think you a little foolish to speak of your marriage as impossible! Now you will write me down a very saucy fellow!’
‘Oh no! But you don’t understand! Here is Lady Barbara coming towards you: please forget this folly!’
She got up, still in some agitation of spirit, and walked quickly away to Judith’s side.
‘Good God! did my approach frighten the heiress away?’ asked Barbara, in a tone of lively amusement. ‘Or was it your gallantry, Charles? Confess! You have been trifling with her!’
‘What, in such a public place as this?’ protested the Colonel. ‘You wrong me, Bab!’
She said with a gleam of fun: ‘I thought you liked public places, indeed I did! Parks—or Allées!’
‘Allées!’ ejaculated Lavisse. ‘Do not mention that word, I beg! I shall not easily forgive Colonel Audley for discovering, with the guile of all staff officers (an accursed race!), that you ride there every morning.’
The Colonel laughed. Barbara took his arm saying: ‘I have made such a delightful plan, Charles. I am quite tired of the Allée Verte. I am going further afield, with Etienne.’
‘Are you?’ said the Colonel. ‘A picnic? I don’t advise it in this changeable weather, but you won’t care for that. Where do you go?’
It was Lavisse who answered. ‘Do you know the Château de Hougoumont, Colonel? Ah, no! How should you, in effect? It is a little country seat which belongs to a relative of mine, a M. de Lunéville.’
‘I know the Château,’ interrupted the Colonel. ‘It is near the village of Merbe Braine, is it not, on the Nivelles road?’
The Count’s brows rose. ‘You are exact! One would say you knew it well.’
‘I had occasion to travel over that country last year,’ the Colonel responded briefly. ‘Do you mean to make your expedition there? It must be quite twelve or thirteen miles away.’
‘What of that?’ said Barbara. ‘You don’t know me if you think I am so soon tired. We shall ride through the Forest, and take luncheon at the Château. It will be capital sport!’
‘Of whom is this party to consist?’ he enquired.
‘Of Etienne and myself, to be sure.’
He returned no answer, but she saw a grave look in his face, which provoked her into saying: ‘I assure you Etienne is very well able to take care of me.’
‘I don’t doubt it,’ he replied.
Lady Worth had joined them by this time, and was listening to the interchange in silence, but with a puckered brow. The whole party began to walk away from the lake, and Judith, resigning her son into Peregrine’s charge, caught up with Barbara, and said in a low voice: ‘Forgive me, but you are not in earnest?’
‘Very seldom, I believe.’
&n
bsp; ‘This expedition with the Count: you cannot have considered what a singular appearance it will give you!’
‘On the contrary: I delight in singularity.’
Judith felt her temper rising; she managed to control it, and to say in a quiet tone: ‘You will think me impertinent, I daresay, but I do most earnestly counsel you to give up the scheme. I can have no expectation of my words weighing with you, but I cannot suppose you to be equally indifferent to my brother’s wishes. He must dislike this scheme excessively.’