Colonel Jones, left in Brussels during the Duke's absence as Military commander, was besieged all the morning by applications for passports. Every track-boat bound for Antwerp was as full as it could hold of refugees; money could not buy a pair of horses in all Brussels. Scores of people drove off at an early hour, with baggage piled high on the roofs of their carriages; the town seemed strangely quiet and deserted; and the church bells ringing for morning service sounded to sensitive ears like a knell.
Both Judith and Barbara had slept the night through, in utter exhaustion, but neither in the morning looked as though she were refreshed by this deep slumber. Except for discussing in a desultory manner the extraordinary revelation Lucy Devenish had made on the previous evening, they did not talk much. Once Judith said: "If you knew the comfort it is to me to have you with me!" but Barbara merely smiled rather mockingly, and shook her head.
In the privacy of their own bedroom, Judith had remarked impulsively to Worth: "I am out of all conceit with myself! I have been deceived alike in Lucy and in Barbara!"
"You might certainly be forgiven for having been deceived in Lucy," Worth replied. "I imagine no one could have suspected such a melodramatic story to lie behind that demure appearance."
"No, indeed! I was never more shocked in my life. Bab says George will make her a very bad husband, and if it were not unchristian I should be much inclined to say that she will have nothing but her just deserts. But Bab! I could not have believed that she had such strength of character, such real goodness of heart! Have not you been surprised?"
"No," he replied. "I should have been very much surprised had she not, in this crisis, behaved precisely as she has done. My opinion of her remains unchanged."
"How can you talk so? You cannot have supposed from her conduct during these past months that she would behave so well now!"
"On the contrary, I never doubted her spirit. She is, moreover, just the kind of young woman who, under the stress of such conditions as these, is elevated for the time above her ordinary self."
"For the time! You place no dependence on this softened mood continuing, I collect!"
"Very little," he answered.