"With the child?"
"To be sure. Of course, I do not fear him in the least for myself."
"You want to keep the child?"
"Naturally, as I carried it off."
"And still more because you had the best right to it, whatever the Court might direct. You are its mother."
Again she blushed and smiled, rather comically. "I certainly shall not surrender it to Lord Blackadder, not without a struggle. Yet he is very near getting it now."
"In there?" I nodded towards the next room. "It is a close thing. How are you to manage it?"
"There would not have been the slightest difficulty; it was all but done, and then some one, something, failed me. I expected too much perhaps, but I have been bitterly disappointed, and the danger has revived."
"Come, come, Lady Blackadder, keep up your courage. Let us take counsel together. We can surely devise some fresh plan. Don't give way now; you have been so plucky all through. Be brave still."
"Thank you, Colonel Annesley, I will." She put out her hand with enchanting frankness, her fine eyes shining gratefully. A man would have dared much, endured much, to win such gracious approval.