Tell me why you have deserted us lately. I held that it
was indisposition, others declared it was temper, and others--can you
guess what the others said?"
"Was it something very unkind?" asked Barbara.
She had walked away with Mrs. Dearmer and one or two others, amongst
them a man named Heriot, to whom Barbara had hardly spoken, but whom she
cordially disliked.
"They said you had a lover," said Mrs. Dearmer.
"It would have been kinder if they had given me a hundred, wouldn't it?
That would, indeed, have been to praise me mightily and declare me
irresistible."
"You will not find women so generous as that," laughed Heriot. "I
thought there was a more subtle meaning in the declaration. In a hundred
lovers there might be safety, but in one--ah! it is the persistency of
one which reduces the citadel."
"I know many who might persist until they were leaning over their grave,
and then not succeed," said Barbara, "and the citadel would not need to
be very strongly guarded either."
"That should hasten your retreat, Mr. Heriot," said Mrs. Dearmer, and
then she drew Barbara a little farther away. "Tell me, are they right?
Is there a lover?"
"You may deny it if you are questioned," Barbara answered.
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