"George actually married you?" said Barbara slowly. "When?"
"Last year - in England!" Lucy replied, covering her face with her hands.
"Then all these months -!" Judith ejaculated. "Good God, how is this possible?"
"It is true. I am aware of what your feelings must be, but oh, if you knew how bitterly I have been punished, you would pity me!"
"I do not know what to say! It is not for me to reproach you! But what can have prompted you to commit such an act of folly? Why this long secrecy? I am utterly at a loss!"
"Ah, you are not acquainted with my grandfather!" said Barbara. "The secrecy is easily explained. What, however, passes my comprehension is how the devil you persuaded George into marriage!"
"He loves me!" Lucy said, rearing up her head.
"He must indeed do so. Odd! I should not have thought you the girl to catch his fancy."
"Oh, Bab, pray hush!" besought Judith.
"Nonsense! If Miss Devenish - I beg pardon! - if Lady George has become my sister the sooner she grows accustomed to the language I use the better it will be. So George was afraid to confess the whole to my grandfather, was he?"