‘My lord,’ said Mr. Weyburn; and actually he did mean to supplicate.  He could imagine seeing Lord Ormont’s eyebrows rising to alpine heights.

Lady Charlotte seized his arm.

’Go at once.  Do as you are told.  I’ll have your portmanteau packed and sent after you—­the phaeton’s out in the yard—­to Rowsley, or Ashead, or Dornton, wherever they put up.  Now go, or we shall have hot work.  Keep your head on, and go.’

He went, without bowing.

Lady Charlotte rang for the footman.

The earl and she watched the scene on the sward below the terrace.

Aminta listened to Weyburn.  Evidently there was no expostulation.

But it was otherwise with Mrs. Pagnell.  She flung wild arms of a semaphore signalling national events.  She sprang before Aminta to stop her retreat, and stamped and gibbed, for sign that she would not be driven.  She fell away to Mr. Morsfield, for simple hearing of her plaint.  He appeared emphatic.  There was a passage between him and Weyburn.

‘I suspect you’ve more than your match in young Weyburn, Mr. Morsfield,’ Lady Charlotte said, measuring them as they stood together.  They turned at last.

‘You shall drive back to town with me, Rowsley,’ said the fighting dame.

She breathed no hint of her triumph.

CHAPTER XVIII

A SCENE ON THE ROAD BACK

After refusing to quit the grounds of Steignton, in spite of the proprietor, Mrs. Pagnell burst into an agitation to have them be at speed, that they might ’shake the dust of the place from the soles of their feet’; and she hurried past Aminta and Lord Ormont’s insolent emissary, carrying Mr. Morsfield beside her, perforce of a series of imperiously-toned vacuous questions, to which he listened in rigid politeness, with the ejaculation steaming off from time to time, ’A scandal!’

He shot glances behind him.

Mrs. Pagnell was going too fast.  She, however, world not hear of a halt, and she was his main apology for being present; he was excruciatingly attached to the horrid woman.

Weyburn spoke the commonplaces about regrets to Aminta.

‘Believe me, it’s long since I have been so happy,’ she said.

She had come out of her stupefaction, and she wore no theatrical looks of cheerfulness.

’I regret that you should be dragged away.  But, if you say you do not mind, it will be pleasant to me.  I can excuse Lord Ormont’s anger.  I was ignorant of his presence here.  I thought him in Paris.  I supposed the place empty.  I wished to see it once.  I travelled as the niece of Mrs. Pagnell.  She is a little infatuated. . . .  Mr. Morsfield heard of our expedition through her.  I changed the route.  I was not in want of a defender.  I could have defended myself in case of need.  We slept at Ashead, two hours from Steignton.  He and a friend accompanied us, not with my consent.  Lord Ormont could not have been aware of that.  These accidental circumstances happen.  There may be pardonable intentions on all sides.’