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Then, still disregarding another imploring look from Lady Tranmore, he left the room. Kitty had flushed angrily. The belittling, malicious note in Ashe's manner had been clear enough. She braced herself against it, and Lady Tranmore's chance was lost.
"I hear Kitty is furious with the Parhams," said Mary, as the two ladies sat together after their rapid dinner. It was a rainy night, and the fire to which they had drawn up was welcome. Lady Tranmore shook her head sadly. "I don't know where it is to end," she said, slowly. "Lady Parham told me yesterday you don't mind my repeating it?"
The door flew open, and in came a tall young man. "William, how late you are!" said Lady Tranmore, as she flew into his arms. "Well, mother, are you pleased?" Her son held her at arm's-length, smiling kindly upon her. "Of course I am," said Lady Tranmore. "And you are you horribly tired?" "Not a bit. Ah, Mary! how do you do?" Miss Lyster had risen, and the cousins shook hands.
Lady Tranmore made no answer. She gazed into the fire, and Miss Lyster thought her depressed. "Has William ever interfered?" she asked, cautiously. Lady Tranmore hesitated. "Not that I know of," she said, at last. "Nor will he ever in the sense in which any ordinary husband would interfere." "I know! It is as though he had a kind of superstition about it.
And she certainly influences Lord Parham." Ashe smoked and smiled. Lady Tranmore saw that his pride, too, had been aroused, and that here he was likely to prove as obstinate as Kitty. "I wish I could get her out of my mind!" she sighed. Ashe glanced at her kindly. "I daresay we shall hold our own.
Kitty, arrayed in the freshest of white gowns, walked away to the farther end of the library to consult a Bradshaw. Elizabeth, looking up, caught her son's eyes and the mingled humor and vexation in them, wherewith he appealed to her, as it were, to see the whole silly business as he himself did. Lady Tranmore felt a moment's strong reaction.
She lifted him out, and carried him in her arms towards Margaret and Lady Tranmore. "Isn't it piteous?" said Margaret, under her breath, as the mother and child approached. Lady Tranmore gave her a sad, assenting look. For during the last six months the child had shown signs of brain mischief a curious apathy, broken now and then by fits of temper. The doctors were not encouraging.
"Kitty apparently enjoyed a moonlight walk with Cliffe. Why shouldn't she? Lady Grosville thinks the moon was made to sleep by other people don't." "But, William! at night when everybody had gone to bed escaping from the house they two alone!" Lady Tranmore looked at him entreatingly, as though driven to protest, and yet hating the sound of her own words. Ashe laughed.
"But I don't deny it's very jolly to come back out of all that beastly scrimmage," said the new member, as he threw himself into an arm-chair by the fire with his hands behind his head, while Lady Tranmore prepared him a cup of tea. "I expect you've enjoyed it," said Miss Lyster, also moving towards the fire.
"He ought to be here," said Lady Tranmore, as she turned away from the window. Mary Lyster laid down her work. It was a fine piece of church embroidery, which, seeing that it had been designed for her by no less a person than young Mr. Burne Jones himself, made her the envy of her pre-Raphaelite friends. "Yes, indeed. You made out there was a train about twelve." "Certainly.
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