"No, I cannot do that." The lace and diamonds at his throat heaved with his unequal breathing, and his lips quivered.
"The Countess means to do us all a mischief," said Susannah, faint and shuddering with the effort of putting these things into words. "Cannot you see it, Marius, that she will find in this fashion her amusement and her revenge? Are you going to lend yourself to it? Go away."
He looked up with brilliant eyes.
"I shall stay," he answered passionately; "but not because of the Countess."
"Ah, you think yourself very strong and courageous," returned Miss Chressham wearily, "but she is, in her way, a clever woman."
"Do not talk of her," cried Marius roughly.
Susannah made no reply.
A little longer and the coach jolted to a standstill.
Miss Chressham sprang up with a nervous little exclamation; the heavy door was opened on to the dark silent street and the summer fragrance, that clung even about the Haymarket with a sweet suggestion of things stirring, growing, breathing, animals, flowers and men, beneath the rising moon.
They went into the house; the coach swung off up the street and the delicate stillness fell again.