But now she could say nothing of all this. And yet those few words with Berwick comforted her, and made her see more clearly, even gave her courage to telegraph to the Johnstones,--only to receive the decided answer that all that could be done was being done, and that her coming, from every point of view, was undesirable. Then, and not till then, did Mrs. Rebell tell her god-mother the news which meant so much to her, indeed to them both. Madame Sampiero made but one comment--"James Berwick must have known this before you went to France!" Barbara bent forward to hear the quickly muttered words. The suggestion surprised her, perhaps troubled her a little. She hesitated,--but surely such knowledge could not have reached him before it reached herself, and so, "No--I do not think so," she said. "Ah! well, I do think so----" Madame Sampiero said no other word, but when her mind--that shrewd, acute mind, as keenly able to weigh actions and to judge those about her as ever it had been--pondered the confession Barbara had made to her immediately on her return from France, her heart grew very tender to James Berwick. She realised, what one who had been a better woman than herself would perhaps not have understood so well, the force of the temptation which must have assailed the man who loved Barbara with so jealous and instinctive a passion. At last, too, Madame Sampiero understood the riddle of Oliver Boringdon's sudden resignation of the conduct of her business. It must have been from him that Berwick had learnt that Mrs. Rebell was on the eve of becoming a free woman. But not even to Doctor McKirdy did the paralysed mistress of the Priory say what was in her mind; the old Scotchman divined that her view as to the danger of the relation of her god-daughter and Berwick had altered, and that the change had come about because of some confidence--or was it confession?--made by Barbara within a few hours of her return from Paris. Only Madame Sampiero,--and, long afterwards, Arabella Berwick,--ever knew of those three days spent by Berwick and Barbara at St. Germains. * * * * * The one person in Chancton, to whom Boringdon made any explanation concerning his resignation of the post he had now held for nearly two years, was Lucy Kemp. His mother told her many acquaintances that the public office her son had left to enter Parliament had found it quite impossible to carry on its portion of the nation's work without him, and that a very great inducement had been held out to him to persuade him to go back! But of these confidences of Mrs. Boringdon's he was happily ignorant, and to Lucy alone Oliver felt a longing to justify the future as well as the present.