he substitute, merely kissed the tapering fingers.
"I am glad to see that you are none the worse for last night's
encounter," he said.
Wondering why his voice rang strangely, she answered, gayly:
"Rather the better for it, I find myself, thank you."
"You told your tale of highway robbery so well that it deceived even
my ears." Lord Farquhart spoke somewhat stiffly. "I had not realized
that you were so accomplished an actor."
"Ay, did I not tell it well?" Her agreement with him held but a faint
note of interrogation.
"I failed to catch your meaning, though, if meaning there was," he
said. And now his tone was so indifferent that the Lady Barbara might
have been forgiven for thinking that he cared not to understand her
meaning.
"I think I expressed my meaning fairly well last night," she answered,
her indifference matching his.
"Shall we let it pass at that, then?" he asked. "At that and nothing
more?" If the Lady Barbara did not care to explain her joke, why
should he force her?
"Ay, let us call it a jest," she answered, "unless the point be driven
in too far. A too pointed jest is sometimes a blunt weapon, my Lord
Farquhart."
Lord Farquhart heard the words that seemed so simple. He realized,
also, that the tone was not so simple, but, as he told himself, the
time would come soon enough when he would have to understand the Lady
Barbara's tones and manners. He would not begin until necessity
compelled him. He had quite convinced himself that the story of the
robbery, and the rings and rose in his coat, were naught save some
silly joke of the unsophisticated schoolgirl he supposed his cousin to
be. He moved restlessly in his chair. It was hard to find a simple
subject to discuss with a simple country girl.
"You received the rings in safety?" he asked, merely to fill in the
silence.
"Quite," she answered, "quite in safety, my Lord Farquhart." She was
consuming herself with a rage that even she could not wholly
understand. Her intended victim's indifference angered her beyond
endurance, and yet she dared not lose the hold she had not fully
gained. A jest, indeed! He chose to call the whole thing a jest! A
sorry jest he'd find it, then! And yet, surely, now was not the time
for her to prove her power. Tapping her foot impatiently, she added in
a thin, restrained voice: "Suppose we let the rings close the incident
for the moment, my cousin!"
Again Lord Farquhart questioned the tone and manner, bu
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