It was on that night that the Lady Barbara received an ovation at Lord
Grimsby's rout as the belle of London town. Most beautiful she was, in
reality, for the damask roses in her cheeks were dyed with the hot
blood of her heart; her eyes, that were wont to be blue as the noonday
sky, were black as night, and the pomegranates of her lips had been
ripened by passion. Surrounded by courtiers, she flung her favors
right and left with impartial prodigality. All the time her heart was
crying out that she would be avenged for the insult that had been
offered her that afternoon. Harry Ashley, approaching her with
hesitating deference, was joyously received, although to herself she
declared that she loathed him, abhorred him and detested him.
Jack Grimsby, toasting the Lady Barbara for the dozenth time,
exclaimed to his crony:
"'Pon my honor, though, I know not if I envy Lord Farquhart or not.
His future lady seems somewhat unstinting in her favors."
"To me it seems that Lord Farquhart asks but little from his future
lady," laughed the crony.
"Is not that Lord Farquhart now?" asked young Grimsby. "Let us watch
him approach the lady. Let us see if she has aught left for him."
A narrow opening in the court that surrounded Lady Barbara permitted
Lord Farquhart to draw near her. There was a sudden lull in the
chatter that encompassed her, for others beside Jack Grimsby were
questioning what the Lady Barbara had reserved for her future lord.
Possibly the Lady Barbara had drawn a little aloof from her attendant
swains, for she seemed to stand quite alone as she measured her fiance
with her eyes from his head to his feet and back again to his eyes.
And all the while her heart was beating tempestuously and her brain
was crying passionately: "If only he had loved me! If only he had
loved me the least little bit!"
On Lord Farquhart's lips was an appeal to his lady's forbearance, in
his eyes lay a message to her heart, but she saw them not. His face
flushed slightly, for he knew that all eyes were bent upon him. Then
it paled under Barbara's cold glance. For a full moment she looked at
him before she turned from him with a shiver that was visible to all,
with a shrug that was seen by all. And yet, when she spoke, it was
after a vehement movement of her hand as though she had silenced a
warning voice.
"My lords and ladies," she cried, her voice ringing even to the
corners of the hushed room, "I--I feel that I must tell you all that
this man, this Lord Farquhart, who was to have been my husband in less
than a week, is--is your gentleman highwayman, your Black Devil who
has made your London roads a terror to all honest men."
For an instant there was absolute silence. Then surprise, amazement
and consternation rose in a babel of sound, but over all Lady
Barbara's voice rang once more.
"I am positive that I speak only the truth," she cried. "No, Lord
Farquhart, I'll not hear you, now or ever again. I've seen him in his
black disguise. He told me himself that he was this Black Devil of the
roads. He confessed it all to me."
The lady still stood alone, and the crowd had edged away from Lord
Farquhart, leaving him, also, alone. On every face surprise was
written, but in no eyes, on no lips, was this so clearly marked as on
Lord Farquhart's own face.
And yet he spoke calmly.
"Is this the sequel to your jest, my lady, or has it deeper meaning
than a jest?"
"Ah, jest you chose to call it once before, and jest you may still
call it," she answered, fiercely, but now her hand was pressed close
against her heart.
"For a full week I have known this fact," exclaimed Ashley, stepping
to the Lady Barbara's side. "Unfortunately, I have seen with my own
eyes proofs convincing even me that my Lord Farquhart is this highway
robber. I cannot doubt it, but I have refrained from speaking before
because Lady Barbara asked me to be silent, asked me to protect her
cousin, hoping, I suppose, that she could save him from his fate, that
she could induce him to forego this perilous pursuit; but----"
Lord Farquhart's hand was closing on his sword, but he did not fail
even then to note the disdain with which Lady Barbara turned from her
champion. She hurriedly approached Lord Grimsby, who was looking
curiously at this highwayman who he himself had had reason to think
was the devil incarnate.
"I beg your pardon, Lord Grimsby"--Lady Barbara was still
impetuous--"for this interruption of your fete, but, to me, it seemed
unwarranted that this man should longer masquerade among you as a
gentleman."
She swept away from Lord Grimsby. She passed close to Lord Farquhart,
lingering long enough to whisper for his ear alone: "You see I can
forgive a crime, but not an insult." Then, sending a hurried message
to her aunt, she paced on down the room, her head held high, the
damask roses still blooming brilliantly, the stars still shining
brightly.
A score of officious hands held her cloak, a dozen officious voices
called her chair. And my Lady Barbara thanked her helpers with smiling
lips that were still pomegranate red, and yet the curtains of her
chair caught her first sob as they descended about her, and it seemed
but a disheveled mass of draperies that the footmen discovered when
they set the lady down at her own door, so prone she was with grief
and despair.