"I also," said Miss Chressham. "I have decided that you return to-night--that you _shall_ return, madam, and before my lord notices your absence. Do you suppose that your insanity can be permitted to work this mad mischief?" It was Marius who answered. "You should not have come on this errand. It can do no good. My lady has appealed to me." The sudden bright flash of wrath with which Susannah spoke was like the unsheathing of a sword. "What have we fallen to that a woman alone must try to defend the honour of Lyndwood? Will you for this"--she turned her gleaming eyes on the Countess--"deliver your house to infamy?" "I am bound," said Marius. Then he also turned to the Countess. "Speak!" he cried passionately. "Tell me again what it is you ask of me; but reflect, in the name of God, what this means. Is it going to be worth it to you?" She moved away both from him and Miss Chressham; she sank on to the stool in front of the spinet, and her hands fell slackly into her lap. "Abandon me if you will," she said faintly. "I have no claim I can enforce; only I am not going back. I can end it now as well as another time." Susannah moved impulsively forward. "Madam, I beseech you!" Her voice was softer. "You have much to forgive--I have not come to judge you--but no wrongs can be righted this way. You must come back." The Countess looked at her bitterly. "You use words you do not know the meaning of. What have you and I in common, madam, that you should dare to interfere with me? We have always disliked each other; do not have the hypocrisy to disclaim it." "You are my lord's wife," interrupted Miss Chressham, withdrawn again into a cold reserve, and armed with angry pride. "My lord's wife!" repeated the Countess Lavinia. "That to you, and no more. My lord's wife to be reclaimed like a straying dog and sent back shivering to my post! My lord's wife! But I am more, madam; I am a woman." She rose impetuously and leant against the spinet, her muslin ruffles touching the white roses. "What's to do?" muttered Marius. He looked from one woman to another in a desperate, helpless fashion, as if he sought some cue. In his eyes was the bewildered, appealing reproach of a wounded animal. Miss Chressham spoke to the Countess with her glance and her gesture as well as her words. "Do you think I can retire leaving you here? If it be useless to quote honour or shame, ye cannot ignore decency. Ye cannot, under my eyes, leave the house in the company of Captain Lyndwood; also your maid is below."