‘I prefer Brownlow to stay, if he will,’ Hartover answered. ‘It is desirable in your interests just as much as in my own.’
‘A packed jury! However, I am at your mercy—two men to one woman. If you command I cannot do otherwise than obey.’
And she folded her hands in her lap, settling her beautiful shoulders back against the soft white and gold cushions.
‘Now for this very chivalrous bargaining,’ she said scornfully. ‘For a bargain is just what it comes to, neither more nor less, I imagine.’
‘Yes,’ Hartover answered; while as he spoke sauciness, laughter, almost youth itself, died out of his face, leaving it grave, drawn, and very pallid. ‘You are right. Between you and me, as matters now stand, your Magnificence, it all comes to the dirty, low-caste business of a bargain—and a hard one. Only let us both speak the truth, please, in as far as we are able. It may save some ugly fighting hereafter.—You say you heard of the legalising of a certain entanglement from Mr. Halidane. Was that your first knowledge of it?’
‘Rumours may have reached me earlier.’
‘Through whom?’—Hartover went white about the lips—‘Through Fédore?’
‘You forget, she had left my service.’
‘But had no rumours reached you through her—Fédore—of another marriage, about three years ago?’
Lady Longmoor moved slightly, throwing back her head. She was very angry, but she was also very nervous—so, at least, I fancied.