"Wait a bit, here's Bab!"
Colonel Audley turned his head quickly, and saw Barbara coming across the room towards him. Her eyes were fixed on her brothers, but, as though she were conscious of his gaze, she glanced in his direction and blushed.
Colonel Audley thrust a hand which he found to be shaking slightly in Lord Robert's arm, and walked away with him.
The Duke had gone to sit beside Lady Helen Dalrymple on the sofa. She found him perfectly amiable but preoccupied, breaking off his conversation with her every now and then to call some officer to him to receive a brief instruction. The Prince of Orange and the Duke of Brunswick both conferred with him for some minutes, and then left the ball together, the Prince heedless of everything but the excitement of the moment, the Duke calm, bestowing his grave smile on an acquaintance encountered in the doorway, not forgetting to take his punctilious leave of his hostess.
A few minutes later, Colonel Audley went up to Judith and touched her arm, saying quietly: "I'm off, Judith. Tell Worth, will you? I haven't time to look for him."
She clasped his hands. "Oh, Charles! Where?"
"Only to Ath, with a message, but it's urgent. I'm unlikely to return to Brussels tonight. Don't be alarmed will you? You will see what a dressing we shall give Boney!"
The next instant he was gone, slipping out of the ballroom without any other leave-taking than a word to his hostess. Others followed him, but in spite of the many departures there seemed to be no empty places in the dining-room when the guests presently went in to supper. Tables were arranged round the room; the junior officers, under the wing of Lord William Lennox with an arm in a sling and bandages and sticking plaster adorning his head, crowded round the sideboard, and were honoured by Lord Uxbridge' calling out to them, with a brimming glass held in his hand: "A glass of wine with the sidetable!"
The Duke sat with Georgiana beside him, he seemed to be in good spirits; his loud laugh kept breaking out; he had given Georgiana a miniature of himself, done by a Belgian artist, and was protesting jokingly at her showing it to those seated near them.
Supper had hardly begun when the Prince of Orange came into the room, looking very serious. He went straight to the Duke, and bent over him, whispering in his ear.