Upon their arrival at the sheet of water by the pavilion his air of fashion left him. Judith was convinced that nothing could have been further from nis inclination than to throw bread to a pair of swans, gut he clapped his hands together, declaring that the swans must and should be fed, and ran off to the pavilion to procure crumbs for the purpose.
He came back presently with some cakes, a circumstance which shocked Miss Devenish into exclaiming against such extravagance.
"Oh, such delicious little cakes, and all for the swans! The stale bread would have been better!"
The Count said gaily: "They have no stale bread, Mademoiselle; they were offended at the very question. So what would you?"
"I am sure the swans will much prefer your cakes Etienne," said Barbara, smiling at him for the first time. "If only you may not corrupt their tastes!" remarked Audley, holding on to his nephew's skirts.
"Ah, true! A swan with an unalterable penchant for cake . I fear he would inevitably starve!"
"He might certainly despair of finding another patron with your lavish notions of largess," observed Barbara.
She stepped away from the group, in the endeavour to coax one of the swans to feed from her hand; after a few moments the Count joined her, while Colonel Audley still knelt, holding his nephew on the brink of the lake, and directing his erratic aim in crumb throwing.
Judith made haste to relieve him of his charge, saying in an undervoice as she bent over her son: "Pray, let me take Julian. You do not want to be engaged with him."
"Don't disturb yourself, my dear sister. Julian and I are doing very well, I assure you."