"The Colonel wants you, Mrs. Ormonde," he said; "and you too, De Burgh.
We are not enough for pool, and you play a capital game, Mrs. Ormonde."
"What are the stakes?" asked De Burgh, rising readily enough.
"Oh, I can't play well at all," said Mrs. Ormonde, following him with
evident reluctance. "Certainly not when Colonel Ormonde is looking on."
"Oh, never mind him. I'll screen you from his hypercritical eyes,"
returned De Burgh, as he held the door open for her to pass out.
So it was, after a spell of heavenly tranquility, as Katherine and her
mother were on their way to England, intending to make a home in or near
London, Mrs. Liddell had been struck down with fever, and Katherine was
left unspeakably desolate. Then she turned to her old friend Mr. Newton,
and found him of infinite use and comfort.
A short space of numb inaction followed, during which she fully realized
the loneliness of her position, and from which she roused herself to
plan her future.
At the time Mrs. Liddell was first attacked with fever they had just
renewed their acquaintance with a Miss Payne, whom they had met in Rome
and at Berlin. She was not unknown in society, for she came of a good
old county family, and was half-sister of the Bertie whose name has
already appeared in these pages.
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