"We will hope he may do so. Your grandfather was very much pleased with the civil letter Colonel Audley wrote to him. How came you to throw him off as you did, my love?"
"O God, Grandmama!" Barbara whispered, and fell on her knees beside the Duchess, and buried her face in her lap.
It was long before she could be calm. The Duchess listened in understanding silence to the disjointed sentences gasped out, merely saying presently: "Don't cry, Bab. It will ruin your face, you know."
"I don't give a damn for my face!"
"I am very sure that you do."
Barbara sat up, smiling through her tears. "Confound you, ma'am, you know too much! There, I have done! You don't wish me to remove to the Hotel de Belle Vue, do you? I cannot leave Judith at this present."
"By all means stay here, my love. But tell me about this child George has married, if you please!"
"I cannot conceive what possessed George to look twice at her. She is quite insipid."
"Dear me! I had better go and call upon her aunt."
She very soon took her leave, setting out on foot to the Fishers' lodging. Her visit did much to sooth Lucy's agitation; and her calm good sense almost reconciled Mr Fisher to an alliance which he had been regarding with the deepest misgiving. Neither his appearance nor the obsequiousness of his manners could be expected to please the Duchess, but she was agreeably surprised in Lucy, and although not placing much dependence upon her being able to hold George's volatile fancy, went back presently to her hotel feeling that things might have been much worse.