"Yes, I think he is," admitted the Colonel. "But really, Judith, I believe it to be Harriet's own fault!"
"Oh, undoubtedly, and so I have told her! It all arose out of that wretched expedition to Hougoumont! I wish I had not meddled!"
He looked at her with arrested expression in his eyes. he asked. "What occurred at Hougoumont to give rise to this piece of nonsense?"
The colour rushed into her face. Vexed with herself for having allowed such unguarded words to escape her, she said: "Oh, nothing, nothing! It was only that Hiarriet took a dislike to Lady Barbara!"
" Indeed! Why should she do that?"
She found herself unable to meet his gaze with composure, and turned away on the pretext of shaking the sofa cushions. "Oh! You know what a country mouse Harriet is! She has not been in the way of meeting fashionable people, and is easily shocked. Lady Barbara was in one of her capricious moods, and I daresay that may have set Harriet against her."
"You may as well tell me the truth, Judith. Did Bab's caprice lead her to flirt with Perry, or what?"
"No, certainly not. Perry was with us the whole time," she said involuntarily.
"Perry was with you! Where, then, was Bab?"
"She was with us too, of course. But Harriet and I drove in a barouche, the others rode. I only meant that Perry rode beside us, while Lady Barbara and the Count were not unnaturally tempted to leave the road for the Forest. I am sure they were not to be blamed for that: I should have liked to have done so myself."