Instead of feeding
that part of man which loves a scandal, she was being fed, always
an unenviable sensation. A woman did not nurse a man under such
circumstances without being everything to him, in the world's eyes. Her
daughter went on:
"I took her to him. It seemed the only thing to do--since it's all
through fretting for her. Nobody knows, of course, except the doctor,
and--Stacey."
"Heavens!" muttered Lady Valleys.
"It has saved him."
The mother instinct in Lady Valleys took sudden fright. "Are you telling
me the truth, Babs? Is he really out of danger? How wrong of you not to
let me know before?"
But Barbara did not flinch; and her mother relapsed into rumination.
"Stacey is a cat!" she said suddenly. The expurgated details of the
scandal she had been retailing to her daughter had included the
usual maid. She could not find it in her to enjoy the irony of this
coincidence. Then, seeing Barbara smile, she said tartly:
"I fail to see the joke."
"Only that I thought you'd enjoy my throwing Stacey in, dear."
"What! You mean she doesn't know?"
"Not a word."
Lady Valleys smiled.
"What a little wretch you are, Babs!" Maliciously she added: "Claud
and his mother are coming over from Whitewater, with Bertie and
Lily Malvezin, you'd better go and dress;" and her eyes searched her
daughter's so shrewdly, that a flush rose to the girl's cheeks.
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