"I have a great affection for Perry," responded Judith tartly, "but I doubt very much his having the power to engage Lady Barbara's interest. Depend upon it, you are making a mountain out of a molehill."
"Oh no! I have been so poorly of late that I have had no spirits to go into society, and so he has looks elsewhere for amusement. I see it all!"
"Well, Harriet, if he had looked elsewhere it would not be surprising. You know how much I have always deprecated your giving way to lowness as you do. If you have a particle of sense you will abandon your sofa and your everlasting hartshorn, give up maudling your inside with tea, and go about a little, and forget your delicate situation. There! That is plain speaking, but good advice. Dry your tears, and do not waste another thought on the matter. You must have forgotten that Lady Barbara is betrothed to Charles. How could she possibly flirt with Perry?"
"There is nothing too base for that creature to do:" Harriet said, roused to a ferocity surprising in one ordinarily so gentle. "I pity Charles Audley! He may be deceived, but I am not."
"That must be considered an advantage. With your eyes open to a possible danger you may act with tact and prudence."
"It is very easy for you to talk in that careless way. Your husband has not been stealing away from you to flirt with a fast, unprincipled female!"
"Come! This is much better," said Judith, with a smile. "If flirtation is all you have to worry about, there can be no occasion for such heat. Lady Bab flirts with everyone, but I believe it to be no more than a fashionable diversion, signifying precisely nothing."
Harriet burst into tears, and while Judith was endeavouring to give her thoughts a more cheerful direction, Colonel Audley strolled into the room with his nephew on his shoulder. He stopped dead on the threshold when he saw what lay before him, hastily begged pardon, and retreated with all a man's horror of becoming mixed up in a scene of feminine vapours. But before he could make good his escape Judith had called to him to stay.
"Charles, for goodness' sake come here and tell Harriet what a goose she is!"
"Oh!" gasped the afflicted lady. "He must not know!"