"I am sure of it," Lady Chaloner said seriously. "There is no doubt about that." "Poor creature!" said Lady Adela. "Didn't he look awful?" "Perfectly fearful!" said Lady Chaloner. "He looked like the villain in a play, who is found out--the man who has cheated at cards, or something of that sort." "Perhaps that was it." "I daresay," said Lady Chaloner. "I wonder if he has been playing Bridge?" "Dear me, I wish I knew!" said Lady Adela. This sounded very interesting, Rachel thought--exactly the kind of thing that happened in books at smart watering-places. "Ah, there is Maddy," said Lady Adela. "I do wonder what she thought." "By the way," said Lady Chaloner, "we must tell her not to say anything about it." But the Princess had driven back in the company of M. de Moricourt and Mr. Marchmont, and had, therefore, not heard the warning given by Stamfordham to his companions in the other landau. "Well," said the Princess eagerly, coming up to the others, "what did you think of that? Wasn't it amazing?" "Yes," said Lady Adela. "What do you think it was, Maddy?" "Something awful, you may depend upon it," said the Princess; "and I am sure little Marchmont knows. We tried to make him tell us on the way back, but he wouldn't. But I gathered somehow that Lord Stamfordham couldn't have done anything else." Lord Stamfordham! Did they say Stamfordham? Rachel thought to herself wonderingly. Was he here? And she had some kind of queer, puzzled feeling that he was connected in her mind with something that had happened lately. What was it? "And Pateley doesn't know anything about it either," said the Princess. "I met him just now and asked him." "Did you?" said Lady Chaloner. "I don't think you ought to have done that. I was going to tell you that Stamfordham said it was not to be mentioned." "Did he?" said the Princess, somewhat taken aback. "I asked Mr. Pateley because I thought he would be sure to know. But I made him promise not to tell anybody." "I believe he did know, though," said Moricourt, who, though he spoke his own language, understood perfectly everything that was said in English. "I wonder what the quiet and charming wife that Wentworth admires so much thinks?" "Poor thing!" said Lady Chaloner gravely. "By the way," said Lady Adela with a sudden idea, "Wentworth was with him. Wentworth must know all about it, of course. He is sure to come to the bazaar. We'll ask him."