She replied as cheerfully as she was able: "I do wish you very happy, Charles. I will try to know Lady Barbara better."
He looked at her in rather a troubled way as she went out of the room. But when he had closed the door behind her the trouble vanished from his eyes, and he walked back to the table, and sat down at it, and began to eat his breakfast.
The Earl watched him for some moments in silence. Presently he said: "Is your engagement to be publicly announced, Charles?"
"Why, I suppose so! There is no secret about it, you know."
"It is very wonderful," Worth observed. "What did she find in you to like so well?"
The Colonel grinned. "I don't know."
"You would not, of course," Worth said dryly. "Forgive my curiosity, but does Lady Barbara mean to follow the drum?"
"She would, I think, and like it very well. Women do, you know - have you ever met Juana, Harry Smith's wife?"
"I have not met Juana, nor have I met Harry Smith.""He's a rifleman: a rattling good fellow, mad as a coot! He went out to America with Pakenham, more's the pity! He married a Spanish child after Badajos: it's too long a story to tell you now, but you never saw such a little heroine in your life! I believe she would go with Harry into action if he would let her. I have seen her fording a river with the water right up to her horse's girths. She will sleep out in the open by a camp fire, wrapped up in a blanket, and never utter a word of complaint. Bab is made of just that high-spirited stuff."
"I hope you may be right," said Worth, unable to picture the Lady Barbara in any such situations.