"
"You actually threatened Wilfred Chichester with this, and forgot
that in finding you your mother's son, he would prove you to be your
father's also?"
"Yes, I--I only remembered my promise."
"The one you gave Cleone, which she had no right to exact--as I told
her--"
"But, madam--"
"Oh, she confessed to me all about it, and how you had tried to pay
Ronald's debts for him out of your own pocket,--which was very
magnificent but quite absurd."
"Yes," sighed Barnabas, "so now I am determined to free him from
Chichester first--"
"By dispossessing Chichester?"
"Yes, madam."
"But--can't you see, if you force him to expose you it will mean
your social ruin?"
"But then I gave--Her--my promise."
"Oh, Barnabas," said the Duchess, looking up at him with her young,
beautiful eyes that were so like Cleone's, "what a superb fool you
are! And your father _is_ only a village inn-keeper!"
"No, madam,--he was champion of all England as well."
"Oh!" sighed the Duchess, shaking her head, "that poor Sir Mortimer
Carnaby! But, as for you, sir, you 're a fool, either a very clumsy,
or a very--unselfish one,--anyhow, you're a fool, you know!"
"Yes," sighed Barnabas, his head hanging, "I fear I am.
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