He tore the note into little bits, and, as he watched them flutter into the waste-paper basket, he sighed. He rose heavily. "Let's go and tell Fanny all about it," said Barbara. XIII 1 "I hope you realize, Horatio, that it was Barbara who got you out of that mess?" "Barbara showed a great deal of intelligence; but you must give me credit for some tact and discretion of my own," Mr. Waddington said as he left the drawing-room. "_Was_ he tactful and discreet?" "His first letters," said Barbara, "were masterpieces of tact and discretion. Before he saw the danger. Afterwards I think his nerve may have gone a bit. Whose wouldn't?" "It _was_ clever of you, Barbara. All the same, it must have been rather awful, going for her like that." "Yes." Now that it was all over Barbara saw that it had been awful; rather like a dog-fight. She had been going round and round, rolling with Mrs. Levitt in the mud; so much mud that for purposes of sheer cleanliness it hardly seemed to matter which of them was top dog at the finish. All she could see was that it had to be done and there wasn't anybody else to do it. "You see," Fanny went on, "she had a sort of case. He _was_ making love to her and she didn't like it. It doesn't seem quite fair to turn on her after that." "She did all the turning. I wouldn't have said a thing if she hadn't tried to put the screw on. Somebody had got to stop it." "Yes," Fanny said. "Yes. Still, I wish we could have let her go in peace." "There wasn't any peace for her to go in; and she wouldn't have gone. She'd have been here now, with his poor thumb in her screw. After all, Fanny, I only pointed out how beastly it would be for her if she didn't go. And I only did that because he was your husband, and it was your thumb, really." "Yes, darling, yes; I know what you did it for. ... Oh, I wish she wasn't so horribly badly off." "So do I, then it wouldn't have happened. But how can you be such an angel to her, Fanny?" "I'm not. I'm only decent. I hate using our position to break her poor back. Telling her we're Waddingtons of Wyck and she's only Mrs. Levitt." "It was the handiest weapon. And you didn't use it. _I'm_ not a Waddington of Wyck. Besides, it's true; she can't blackmail him in his own county. You don't seem to realize how horrid she was, and how jolly dangerous." "No," Fanny said, "I don't realize people's horridness. As for danger, I don't want to disparage your performance, Barbara, but she seems to me to have been an easy prey." "You _are_ disparaging me," said Barbara. "I'm not. I only don't like to think of you enjoying that nasty scrap." "I only enjoyed it on your account." "And I oughtn't to grudge you your enjoyment when we reap the benefit. I don't know what Horatio would have done without you. I shudder to think of the mess he'd have made of it himself." "He was making rather a mess of it," Barbara said, "when I took it on."