Quick, please!" and began: "You are not to be trusted a bit.

What were you doing ?" But Courtier smiled grimly over the head of Ann, in silence.
At this, almost the first time she had ever yet encountered a distinct rebuff, Barbara quivered, as though she had been touched lightly with a whip.

Her lips closed firmly, her eyes began to dance.

"Very well, my dear," she thought.

But presently stealing a look at him, she became aware of such a queer expression on his face, that she forgot she was offended.
"Is anything wrong, Mr.Courtier ?" "Yes, Lady Barbara, something is very wrong--that miserable mean thing, the human tongue." Barbara had an intuitive knowledge of how to handle things, a kind of moral sangfroid, drawn in from the faces she had watched, the talk she had heard, from her youth up.