"Wretch! Be quiet!"
"But no, I will not be quiet. Figure to yourself the difference were you to marry me!"
An irrepressible laugh broke from her. "I do. I should then be surrounded by your light-o'-loves. I have seen enough of that in my own family to be cured of wanting to marry a rake."
"You have in England a saying that a reformed rake -"
"My dear Etienne, if you were reformed you would be as dull as the next man. You are wasting your eloquence. I do not love you more than a very little. You are an admirable flirt, I grant, and I find you capital company."
"Do you find your colonel - capital company?"
She turned her head, regarding him with one of her clear looks. "Do you know, I have never thought of that: it has not occurred to me. It is the oddest thing, but if you were to ask me, what does he look like? how does he speak? I couldn't tell you. I think he is handsome; I suppose him to be good company, because it doesn't bore me to be with him. But I can't particularise him. I can't say, he is handsome, he is witty, or he is clever. I can only say, he is Charles."
The smile had quite faded from his face; his horse leapt suddenly under a spur driven cruelly home: "Ah, parbleu, you are serious then!" he exclaimed. "You are lovesick - besotted! I wish you a speedy recovery, ma belle!"
Chapter Ten
Judith saw nothing of Barbara on the following day, but heard of her having gone to a fete at Enghien, given by the Guards. She was present in the evening at a small party at Lady John Somerset's, surrounded by her usual court, and had nothing more than a nod and a wave of the hand to bestow upon Judith. The Comte de Lavisse had returned to his cantonments, but his place seemed to be admirably filled by Prince Pierre d'Aremberg, whose attentions, though possibly not serious, were extremely marked.