From the library sir Wilton saw her stormy exit and departure. “By Jove!” he said to himself, “a hundred to one my lady was insolent to her! Said something cool about her madcap girl, probably! She’s the right sort, by Jove, that little Bab! If only my Richard now, leathery fellow, would glue onto her! I’ll put him up to it, I will! Arthur and she indeed! As if a plate of porridge like Arthur would draw a fireflash like Bab! I’d give my soul to have such a girl!”

It did not occur to him that his soul for Barbara would scarcely be fair barter.

The instant she reached home, Mrs. Wylder sent for her daughter, and demanded, fury still blazing in her eyes, what she had been doing to give that beast of a lady Ann a right to talk.

“Tell me first how she talked, mama,” returned Barbara, used to her mother’s ways and not annoyed at being addressed so. “I can’t have been doing anything very bad, for she’s been doing what she can to get me and keep me.”

“She has? And you never told me!”

“I didn’t think it worth telling you. She’s been setting papa on to me too.”

“Oh, I see! And you wouldn’t set him and me on each other! Well, I’ll have no buying and selling of my goods behind my back! If you speak one more civil word to that young Lestrange, you shall hear from me!”

“I will not speak an uncivil word to him, mama. He has never given me occasion to. But it won’t break my heart if I never see him again. If you like I won’t go near the place. Theodora’s the only one I care about—and she’s as dull as she is good.”

“What did the kangaroo mean by saying you were sweet on somebody not worthy of you?”

“I know what she meant, mother. But the man is worthy of a far better woman than me—and I hope he’ll get her someday.”

Thereupon little Bab burst into tears, dreading that her good wish for Richard should be granted otherwise than she meant it. She did hope to be a better woman before it was too late.

“Come, come, child! None of that! I don’t like it. I don’t want to cry on top of my rage. What is the man? Who is he? What does the woman know about him?”