Under those circumstances, she felt sure that Madame Marillac would yield to the temptation.
She could resist much—but she could not resist her son.
The boy nodded, to show that he understood her.
The moment after he laid down his flageolet with an expression of surprise.
“You are trembling!” he said.
“Are you frightened?”
She was frightened.
The mere sense of touching him had made her shudder.
Did she feel a vague presentiment of some evil to come from that momentary association with him?
Madame Marillac, turning away again from her daughter, noticed Stella’s agitation.
“Surely, my poor boy doesn’t alarm you?” she said.
Before Stella could answer, some one outside knocked at the door.
Lady Loring’s servant appeared, charged with a carefully-worded message.
“If you please, miss, a friend is waiting for you below.”
Any excuse for departure was welcome to Stella at that moment.
She promised to call at the house again in a few days.
Madame Marillac kissed her on the forehead as she took leave.
Her nerves were still shaken by that momentary contact with the boy.
Descending the stairs, she trembled so that she was obliged to hold by the servant’s arm.
She was not naturally timid.
What did it mean?
Lady Loring’s carriage was waiting at the entrance of the street, with all the children in the neighborhood assembled to admire it.
She impulsively forestalled the servant in opening the carriage door.
“Come in!” she cried.
“Oh, Stella, you don’t know how you have frightened me!
Good heavens, you look frightened yourself!
From what wretches have I rescued you?
Take my smelling bottle, and tell me all about it.”
The fresh air, and the reassuring presence of her old friend, revived Stella.
She was able to describe her interview with the General’s family, and to answer the inevitable inquiries which the narrative called forth.
Lady Loring’s last question was the most important of the series:
“What are you going to do about Romayne?”
“I am going to write to him the moment we get home.”
The answer seemed to alarm Lady Loring.
“You won’t betray me?” she said.
“What do you mean?”
“You won’t let Romayne discover that I have told you about the duel?”
“Certainly not.
You shall see my letter before I send it to be forwarded.”
Tranquilized so far, Lady Loring bethought herself next of Major Hynd.
“Can we tell him what you have done?” her ladyship asked.
“Of course we can tell him,” Stella replied.
“I shall conceal nothing from Lord Loring, and I shall beg your good husband to write to the Major.
He need only say that I have made the necessary inquiries, after being informed of the circumstances by you, and that I have communicated the favorable result to Mr. Romayne.”
“It’s easy enough to write the letter, my dear. But it’s not so easy to say what Major Hynd may think of you.”
“Does it matter to me what Major Hynd thinks?”
Lady Loring looked at Stella with a malicious smile.
“Are you equally indifferent,” she said, “to what Romayne’s opinion of your conduct may be?”
Stella’s color rose.
“Try to be serious, Adelaide, when you speak to me of Romayne,” she answered, gravely.