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"Why," said Barnaby. "It was only you from the first,--that first night when the sight of you staggered me. I didn't know why, but I did know that at any cost, at any risk, I couldn't let you go. I thought I was strong enough, man enough, to keep you safe in my house:--and when I began to find out what a hard thing I had undertaken, when I had to fight back the mad desire to make the farce we played at real,--you believed that I had betrayed you to another woman.... I've got your letter, your dear sc.r.a.p of a piteous letter, letting me know that she and I had no barrier between us.... And that was to be the last I heard of you, was it, Susan?"
The reproach in his question was lost in its bantering tenderness.
"Wait," he said, "till I have you safe, and I'll teach you... And then, perhaps, we'll dare to look back on it all and laugh,--a long time afterwards; just you and I, by ourselves."
Lady Henrietta was back already. She had been discreet, had asked for no fuller explanation than the one she had so promptly furnished herself. It was all she was to know; but she was too wise to pry. At the back of her mind there was nothing but an absolute satisfaction, as of a warrior who had won her battle. If her eyes, shrewd and understanding, were dimmed a little as she considered them, she flung off her emotion quickly and smiled again.
"How funny it is," she said. "You have no idea how I am enjoying myself, you children. Put her furs on, Barnaby, b.u.t.ton her up to the chin. I promised the Bishop we wouldn't be late. Secret marriages never are."
Then, hurrying him, she was moved to plague him with an irrepressible spark of mischief.
"Incomprehensible pair," she said. "I wish I had been at your first wedding. It must have been frightfully romantic."
Barnaby put away his watch. An unconquerable flicker lit up his eyes.
"It was," he said. "I just took her hand like this, and I said--" he was holding it tight in his--"Let's go and get married, Susan."
WILLIAM BRENDON AND SON, LTD.
PRINTERS, PLYMOUTH
