“Good!” Barnard smiled sunnily upon her; his anger and jealousy a thing of the past. “I know you will keep faith with me, my darling,” then he added in a different tone, as their waitress appeared. “Will you please bring us some more ice water.”
“I—I—must go,” Janet clutched her bag and gloves in desperate haste. She felt that she should scream if she remained in the room a moment longer. She was shivering from head to foot.
“No, no, it’s still early,” remonstrated Barnard. “You haven’t finished your muffin.” But Janet shook her head.
“I must go,” she reiterated; and Barnard, a past-master in knowing when to concede a point, rose to his feet. As they made their way to the door, they passed Judge and Mrs. Walbridge, and the latter stopped them.
“I never saw two people so interested in each other,” she declared breezily; then added with elephantine playfulness, “Of course, Mr. Barnard was only telling you, Miss Fordyce, about his law cases.”
“Of course,” answered Barnard, the twinkle in his eyes belying his serious expression. “I was just mentioning to Miss Fordyce that crime knows no sex.”
Five minutes later Kathryn Allen, back in her far corner of the room, paid for her tea and scones and went hurriedly out of the shop. She had never taken her eyes from the two people she had gone there to watch, and bitterly she regretted that she was not a lip-reader. One thought was uppermost in her mind. What hold had Chichester Barnard over Janet Fordyce?
CHAPTER XVI
A TUG OF WAR
Representative J. Calhoun-Cooper laid down his pen and regarded his wife in some surprise. “Are you going to church, Augusta?”
“No, I attended the morning services.” She ensconced herself in a chair near him. “Pauline told me that you wish to see me.”