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"I notice you never have a good word for any of the Farringmore family," said the squire quizzically. She shook her head. "They are all so selfish. It's the family failing, I'm afraid." "You don't share it anyhow," said Vera. "Ah! You don't know me," said Juliet.
"What about Lady Joanna Farringmore?" said Vera suddenly. Juliet was standing before the fire. She bent slightly, the warm glow softly tinging her white neck. "I should have thought that old fable might have died a natural death by this time," she said. Vera gave her a sharp look.
But they boast of being on nodding terms with that arch-bounder Lord Saltash, and so everything is forgiven them." Juliet suddenly stood up very straight. "I think I ought to tell you," she said, "that I know Lord Saltash. I have lived with the Farringmore family, as you know. He is a friend of Lord Wilchester's." The squire turned sharply.
"Hullo, Ashcott. Your lambs are in force to-night. How are they behaving themselves?" "Pretty fair," said Ashcott. "They're getting the strike rot like the rest of the world. We shan't hold 'em for ever. If any of the Farringmore lot turned up here, I wouldn't answer for 'em.
He spoke at length, and in his voice was something she had never heard before something from which she shrank uncontrollably, as the victim shrinks from the branding-iron. "And so you think you can leave me as lightly as Lady Joanna Farringmore left that man I went to see today?" She lifted her head with a gasp. "No!" she said. "Oh, no! Not like that!"
"Oh, quite!" said Saltash readily. "He knows me almost as well as you do. And I know him even better. I was saying to Juliette just now that I believe he shares the general impression that I have got Lady Jo Farringmore somewhere up my sleeve. She did the rabbit trick, you know, a week or two before the wedding, and because I was to have been the best man I somehow got the blame.
And he can do anything with 'em too, plays his banjo and sings and makes 'em laugh. The mines belong to the Farringmore family, you know Lord Wilchester owns 'em. But he never comes near, and a' course the men gets discontented and difficult. And they're a nasty drinking lot too. Why, the manager that's Mr. Ashcott he's at his wit's end sometimes.
It's common talk that he's in Paris at this moment entertaining that worthless jade, Lady Joanna Farringmore." Juliet gave a violent start at the words. For a moment her face flamed red, then went dead white so white that she almost looked as if she would faint. Then, in a very low voice, "It may be common talk," she said, "but I am quite sure it isn't true." "Good heavens!" exclaimed the squire.
Juliet my wife my wife is was Lady Joanna Farringmore!" "Great heavens!" said the squire. "Dick, are you sure?" "Yes, quite sure. She was caught caught by Yardley at the meeting to-night. She couldn't escape so she told the truth told the whole crowd and then bolted bolted with Saltash." "Great heavens!" said the squire again. "But what was Saltash doing there?" "Oh, he came to protect her.
The lips that held the cigarette were delicately moulded also, but they had considerable character. "If I were Lady Joanna Farringmore, I suppose I should say something rather naughty in French, Columbus, to relieve my feelings. But you and I don't talk French, do we? And we have struck the worthy Lady Jo and all her crowd off our visiting-list for some time to come.
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