Lady Vidal, who had come out of the house with her husband, merely bowed to Judith from the top of the stone steps, but Vidal put himself to the trouble of coming up to the barouche to thank Judith for her kindness in joining the expedition. He said in a low voice: "Bab is a sad romp! One of these days her crotchets will be the ruin of her. But your presence makes everything as it should be! I shan't conceal from you that I don't above half like that fellow Lavisse."
Not wishing to join in any animadversions on one who was for this day in some sort her host, Judith passed it off with a smile and a trivial remark. Her dislike of Lavisse was as great as Vidal's, but she was forced to acknowledge the very gentleman-like way in which he had received the news of the augmentation of his party. Not by as much as the flicker of an eyelid did he betray the mortification he must feel. His civility iowards the ladies in the barouche was most flattering; he was all smiles and complaisance, prophesying fine weather, and displaying a proper solicitude for their comfort.
"Don't you wish you were coming, Gussie?" Barbara called.
"My dear Bab, you must know that of all insipidities I most detest a family party," returned Augusta.
Barbara bit her lip, glancing towards the barouche as though she saw it with new eyes. Suddenly impatient, she said: "Well, why do we wait? Let us, for God's sake, start."
The Count, who was giving some directions to worth's coachman, looked over his shoulder with a smile of perfect comprehension. "En avant, then!" he said,reining his horse back to allow the barouche to pass.
When it had moved forward with Peregrine riding behind it, he fell in beside Barbara, and said with some amusement: "You repent already, and are asking yourself what you do in this galere."
"Oh, by God, I must have been mad!" she said. "Little fool! I admire the guard set about you by you staff officer. It is most formidable!"
"It was not his doing. The notion was Lady Worth and I fell in with it."
"Impayable! Why, for example?"