The band of lovers went as white as Augustin; they stood up simultaneously. "I see it, I see it," said Bob, and he actually snatched the paper from Lord Bradstock’s hand. "Is she married? Is she dead?" asked Titania. "No, no," said Bob, sputtering and aflame with wild excitement; "it’s ’Brading—Lady Penelope Brading on the 18th of a son!’" *CHAPTER XIV.* There are blows which stun; this was, of course, one of them. Titania did not shriek or faint at the awful intelligence conveyed by the Thunderer of Printing House Square. She nodded her head as if she was partially paralyzed, and at last murmured in a dry whisper: "Of a son! Of a son!" Bradstock’s eyebrows were as high as they would go, and he stared at Titania, and then look around on the circle of men and women. Ethel squeaked a little squeak, like a mouse behind the wainscot and was silent. "Oh—of a son," said Goby, sighing and looking at the floor. "Of a son!" said Plant, eyeing the ceiling. "_Un fils!_" shrieked Rivaulx. Gordon said "Damnation;" De Vere shook like a stranded jelly-fish; Bramber went as scarlet as a lobster, and then as white as cotton; Carteret Williams looked blue, and Carew looked green, and Bob said: "My eye!" There is something organic in any given number of people acting under the same shock or the same impulse. What one thinks another thinks; and now all the room fixed their eyes on Titania, whose lips moved in silence. "This is dreadful!" said Titania to herself. "I don’t believe she’s married at all. One of these men is a scoundrel, a ruffian, a seducer!" No one heard what she said, but as she thought it the men looked at each other with awful suspicions. And then Titania, whose mind was whirling, said feebly: "We—we must hush it up!" And there lay the _Times_! Hush it up indeed! And Bradstock recovered some of his equanimity. "Nonsense! She’s married, as she says," he remarked, with comparative coolness. But no one believed it. The men drew apart from each other. De Vere moved his chair, because Goby was looking at him like a demon. Carew shrank from Carteret Williams. Gordon went livid under Plant’s eyes. Bramber looked at them all as if he would die on the spot. Rivaulx rose up and waltzed around the room. It was a happy chance that he did so; it is possible that he saved immediate bloodshed. Bradstock and Bob caught the Frenchman in their arms, and led him outside to the lawn, where there was ample room for a frantic _pas seul_. "Steady, old chap!" said Bradstock, "steady! Her husband _must_ acknowledge now who he is!" "Oh, no," said Bob, in immense delight, "not much! If she’s married at all, she’s sworn him not to. She told me she’d swear him not to! And she said if he broke his oath she’d never see him again!" "Great heavens!" said Bradstock, "so she did. I remember now, she _did_ speak of oaths, dreadful oaths!"