"Yes, I—I only remembered my promise."
"The one you gave Cleone, which she had no right to exact—as I told her—"
"But, madam—"
"Oh, she confessed to me all about it, and how you had tried to pay Ronald's debts for him out of your own pocket,—which was very magnificent but quite absurd."
"Yes," sighed Barnabas, "so now I am determined to free him from
Chichester first—"
"By dispossessing Chichester?"
"Yes, madam."
"But—can't you see, if you force him to expose you it will mean your social ruin?"
"But then I gave—Her—my promise."
"Oh, Barnabas," said the Duchess, looking up at him with her young, beautiful eyes that were so like Cleone's, "what a superb fool you are! And your father is only a village inn-keeper!"