To be forced, against her own will, to surrender! To be compelled to do what she would so gladly have done of her own accord, if she had but known how! She set her teeth tight.
An hour later, in the early fall of the slow August evening, Ursula knocked at Skiff’s humble door. Adeline opened it, and immediately tossed her head. “And what may you please to want of me?” she asked.
“I wish to speak to your husband,” replied Ursula.
“Find him, then,” said Adeline, and banged the door.
The insult did Ursula good in this hour of universal adulation. It braced her.
She took a few steps down the lonely lane, reflectively, and then remembered the public-house at the end. She wondered she had not thought of it before. She called to a child at play, gave it a penny, and bade it tell Skiff he was wanted at home immediately.
“Wanted at home, you hear!” she cried after it, as she hastily retreated.
The urchin scampered off and burst into the bar-room. “My lady Baroness wants Mynheer Skiff!” he screamed. “She’s waiting in the middle of the road.”
This bomb-shell, at least, had its desired effect, which a quieter summons from Adeline might easily have missed. Amid general but silent astonishment, and much arching of eyebrows, Skiff started up and stumbled out.