“Purcell did not make any serious attack upon your character while my husband was present. He spoke, as I have said, of your engagement to Adams, and of the fact that he had seen Adams kiss you—and some others, I believe. What he said afterwards, Marlborough did not hear, for, not finding the conversation to his taste, he got up and left, and so did Calmiden!”
“Kenneth?” Julie cried wildly.
“Yes, he left the room, Marlborough said, white with rage. He was furious at your double play.”
“But Dwight said that Kenneth was there—and took no part.”
“Who was following anybody’s movements after such a disclosure? Don’t you see, nobody had dreamed that Adams had come to Guindulman! And when you know Dwightie as well as I do, you’ll discover that he never sees anything clearly, poor dear, when he gets excited. Marlborough says that when Purcell announced that the Major had told him that you were engaged to Jack Adams and that that was why he set out on his disastrous adventure, everything was in excitement, and Calmiden rose straight off and left. Perhaps he should have said something when Purcell spoke of your universal flirting—he made a mistake there, but he was shocked and angry.
“There, I’ve handed you back a new lease of life, I see. Go immediately and make your peace with Kenneth. Good-by!”
Julie never knew how she got across the parade ground; it seemed as if on wings. The blood was spinning in her head. Once home she sat down and composed a letter, of a kind that never in all her life was she able to write again. It was written under the spur of renewed belief in the universe. Until this wrong was righted the universe could not properly balance, and not an instant must be lost in setting it right.
In this letter, Julie endeavored to make Calmiden understand that there was nothing she would not do to show how fearfully sorry she was.
She made a full and free explanation concerning Adams. Very urgently she tried to initiate Calmiden into the delicately intangible bond that had existed between them. She explained that the disastrous first letter had been written in one of her fatally uncontrollable impulses, prompted by circumstances which at the time had distorted her view. She would reveal those conditions when he came to her, which she begged him to do at once.
Nothing could have been more consummately abject than this letter. Julia again dispatched Delphine to Calmiden, with the strictest injunctions for a swift return with the answer.