"Shielding you!" Sir Robert cried in mock surprise. "From what? Tell me, Mrs. Admaston," he continued, as Peggy looked round the court helplessly—"tell me, do you think that Lord Ellerdine—he is an old friend?"
"Yes, a dear old friend," Peggy said, glad to be able to say something for a moment which did not tell against her.
"Do you think that Lord Ellerdine and Lady Attwill believed that you were in Paris, by accident?"
"How can I tell?" Peggy replied, not in the least seeing to what this was leading.
"Have you any doubt? Why do you think that Lord Ellerdine returned to Paris by the night train instead of letting you join them at Chalons, except that he thought something was very seriously wrong?"
"I have told you," Peggy replied, "that he thought he was shielding me."
"But you have not told me from what he thought he was shielding you. What was he to shield you from?"
"Nothing," Peggy said once more. And again there was a ripple of laughter throughout the court.
At this Sir Robert Fyffe allowed himself his first look at the jury, and a most significant one it was. Then he turned quickly to the witness-box. "Nothing!" he cried. "Then why did you invent—or connive at the invention of—this story?"
"Why did I?" the girl said helplessly. "I don't know. I thought it foolish. I saw that they had told a lying story to my husband, thinking to serve me, and I didn't want to give them away."