"You might well meet with unpleasantness. Is not Vidal here?"
"Yes, driving with Gussie. You will not expect me to curb my horses to keep pace with a sober barouche. I shall spring 'em, you know."
He stepped back. She said saucily: "Retiring again. Charles? You're the wisest man of my acquaintance. Goodbye! Don't be anxious: I am a famous whip."
She began to make her way out of the ranks of carriages; the Colonel mounted his horse again, and rode off to his brother's curricle. He saluted Judith, but without attending to what she had to say of the review, addressed Worth. "Julian, be a good fellow, will you, and follow Bab? She's alone, and I don't care for her to be driving all the distance without an escort. You need not so proclaim yourself, by the way, but I should be glad if you would keep her in sight."
"Certainly," said Worth.
"Thank you: I knew I might depend on you."
He raised two fingers to his hat, and rode off. Judith said: "Well, if she's alone it must be for the first time. Poor Charles! I daresay she has done it simply to vex him."
"Very possibly," Worth agreed. "There is a bad streak in the Alastairs."
"Yes. Lord George, in particular, is not at all the thing. I am so disturbed to see him making Lucy the object of his attentions! It was most marked last night: he danced with her three times."
"She did not appear to mind."