“You’ll repent it.”
“Not if you make yourself as agreeable as you ought,” answered Freke.
The impudence of this tickled Mrs. Sherrard.
“I hear you are an entertaining fellow,” she said. “Come and talk to me.”
Just then Mrs. Temple entered, but Mrs. Sherrard kept fast hold of Freke. In half an hour he had won her over. Judith, responding with an intelligent glance to a rather cynical smile on Throckmorton’s part, saw it. Not satisfied with winning Mrs. Sherrard over, Freke applied himself to Morford, and that excellent but guileless person fell an instant victim to Freke’s tact and power. Mrs. Sherrard was so pleased with her morning’s visit, that she invited them all over to Turkey Thicket to spend the following Thursday evening.
CHAPTER VI.
In the few days that followed, Judith saw more plainly that Freke was deliberately casting his spell over Jacqueline, and, from the soft and seductive flattery he had tried on her, Judith, at first, he exchanged something like sarcasm. He would discuss constancy before her, Judith meanwhile keeping her seat resolutely, but she could not prevent the tell-tale color from rising into her face. But when, as Freke generally did, he surmised that all the so-called constancy in this world wasn’t exactly what it purported to be, she grew pale beneath his gaze. He watched her intently whenever she was with Throckmorton, and the mere consciousness of being watched embarrassed while it angered her. Freke, whose perceptions were of the quickest, saw far into the future, and often repeated in his own mind the old, old truth that all the passions of human nature—love, hope, despair, jealousy, and revenge—could be found within the quietest and most peaceful circle.
The very next evening after Mrs. Sherrard’s visit, Freke appeared in the dusky drawing-room, where Jacqueline sat crouched over the fire, and Judith, with her child in her arms, sang him quaint Mother Goose melodies. When Freke came within the fire’s red circle of light, Judith observed that he had a violin and bow under his arm. Jacqueline jumped up delightedly.