For a breath Olivia was taken aback. Then she perceived clearly that it was a lie. He could not put the fear of God into Grey. Besides, Grey had kissed her, not she him. "It's you who are lying," she said quickly and with spirit. "How could Colonel Grey admit a thing that never happened?" Lord Loudwater perceived that it was going to be harder to wring the confession from her than he had expected. Checked, he paused. Then Elizabeth Twitcher caught his attention. "Here: you--clear out!" he said. Elizabeth Twitcher caught her mistress's eye in the glass. Olivia made no sign. "I can't leave her ladyship's hair in this state, your lordship," said Elizabeth Twitcher with sullen firmness. "You do as you're told and clear out!" bellowed his lordship. "I don't want to be half an hour late for dinner," said Olivia, accepting the diversion and ready to make the most of it. Elizabeth Twitcher looked at Lord Loudwater, saw more clearly than ever his likeness to the loathed James Hutchings, and made up her mind to do nothing that he bade her do. She went on dressing her mistress's hair sullenly. "Are you going? Or am I to throw you out of the room?" cried Lord Loudwater in a blustering voice. "Don't be silly, Egbert!" said Olivia sharply. From the height of her new emotional experience she felt that her husband was merely a noisy and obnoxious boy. This was, indeed, quite plain to her. She felt years older than he and very much wiser. Lord Loudwater, with a quite unusual glimmer of intelligence, perceived that bringing Elizabeth Twitcher into the matter had been a mistake. It had weakened his main action. In a less violent but more malevolent voice he said: "Silly? Hey? I'll show you all about that, you little jade! You clear out of this first thing to-morrow morning. My lawyers will settle your hash for you. I'll deal with that blackguard Grey myself. I'll hound him out of the Army inside of a month. Perhaps it'll be a consolation to you to know that you've done him in as well as yourself." He turned on his heel, left the room with a positively melodramatic stride, and slammed the door behind him. Olivia was stricken by a sudden panic. She had lost all fear of her husband as far as she herself was concerned. He had become a mere offensive windbag. She did not care whether he did, or did not, try to divorce her. Even on the terms of so great a scandal it would be a cheap deliverance. But Antony was another matter.... She could not bear that he should be ruined on her account.... It was intolerable ... not to be thought of.... She must find some way of preventing it.