"I do, and I am grateful to you."
"But, Worth! A retreat!" Judith cried.
"Don't disturb yourself, my love. Recollect that Wellington is a master in retreat. If the Prussians have fallen back, we must be obliged to do the same to maintain our communications with them. Until we hear that the retreat is a rout, I must - regretfully, of course - decline to join the rabble on the road to Antwerp."
Judith could not help laughing, but said with a good deal of spirit: "Nothing, indeed, could be more odious. We certainly shall not talk of flight yet awhile."
They dined at an early hour, but although both ladies were very tired from the exertions and the nervous stress they had undergone, neither could think of retiring to bed until further news had been received from the Army. They sat in the salon, trying to occupy themselves with ordinary sewing tasks, until Worth, with a glance at the clock, got up, saying that he would walk round to Stuart's to discover if anything more had been heard. He left the room, and went downstairs to the hall. At the same moment, the ladies heard a knock on the street door, followed an instant later by the confused murmur of voices in the hall.
Chapter Twenty
Judith ran out to the head of the stairs. Worth called up to her: "It is Charles, Judith. All is well!"
"Oh, bring him up! Bring him up!" she begged. "Charles, I am so thankful! Come up at once!"
"I'm in no fit state to enter your drawing-room, you know," Colonel Audley replied in a tired but cheerful voice.
"Good God, what does that signify?" She caught sight of him as she spoke, and exclaimed: "You are drenched to the skin! You must change your clothes immediately or Heaven knows what will become of you!"