Suddenly a pair of voices that she knew caught her ear. Two persons, pa.s.sing through, lingered, without perceiving her. Kitty, after a first movement of self-disclosure, caught her own name and stood motionless.
"Well, of course you"ve heard that we got through," said Lady Parham.
"For once Lady Kitty behaved herself!"
"You were lucky!" said Mary Lyster. "Lady Tranmore was dreadfully anxious--"
"Lest she should cut us at the last?" cried Lady Parham. "Well, of course, Lady Kitty is "capable de tout."" She laughed. "But perhaps as you are a cousin I oughtn"t to say these things."
"Oh, say what you like," said Mary. "I am no friend of Kitty"s, and never pretended to be."
Lady Parham came closer, apparently, and said, confidentially: "What on earth made that man marry her? He might have married anybody. She had no money, and worse than no position."
"She worked upon his pity, of course, a good deal. I saw them in the early days at Grosville Park. She played her cards very cleverly. And then, it was just the right moment. Lady Tranmore had been urging him to marry."
"Well, of course," said Lady Parham, "there"s no denying the beauty."
"You think so?" said Mary, as though in wonder. "Well, I never could see it. And now she has so much gone off."
"I don"t agree with you. Many people think her the star to-night. Mr.
Cliffe, I am told, admires her."
Kitty could not see how the eyes of the speaker, under a Sir Joshua turban, studied the countenance of Miss Lyster, as she threw out the words.
Mary laughed.
"Poor Kitty! She tried to flirt with him long ago--just after she arrived in London, fresh out of the convent. It was so funny! He told me afterwards he never was so embarra.s.sed in his life--this baby making eyes at him! And now--oh no!"
"Why not now? Lady Kitty"s very much the rage, and Mr. Cliffe likes notoriety."
"But a notoriety with--well, with some style, some distinction! Kitty"s sort is so cheap and silly."
"Ah, well, she"s not to be despised," said Lady Parham. "She"s as clever as she can be. But her husband will have to keep her in order."
"Can he?" said Mary. "Won"t she always be in his way?"
"Always, I should think. But he must have known what he was about. Why didn"t his mother interfere? Such a family!--such a history!"
"She did interfere," said Mary. "We all did our best"--she dropped her voice--"I know I did. But it was no use. If men like spoiled children they must have them, I suppose. Let"s hope he"ll learn how to manage her. Shall we go on? I promised to meet my supper-partner in the library."
They moved away.
For some minutes Kitty stood looking out, motionless, but the beating of her heart choked her. Strange ancestral things--things of evil--things of pa.s.sion--had suddenly awoke, as it were, from sleep in the depths of her being, and rushed upon the citadel of her life. A change had pa.s.sed over her from head to foot. Her veins ran fire.
At that moment, turning round, she saw Geoffrey Cliffe enter the room in which she stood. With an impetuous movement she approached him.
"Take me down to supper, Mr. Cliffe. I can"t wait for Lord Hubert any more, I"m _so_ hungry!"
"Enchanted!" said Cliffe, the color leaping into his tanned face as he looked down upon the G.o.ddess. "But I came to find--"
"Miss Lyster? Oh, she is gone in with Mr. Darrell. Come with me. I have a ticket for the reserved tent. We shall have a delicious corner to ourselves."
And she took from her glove the little coveted paste-board, which--handed about in secret to a few intimates of the house--gave access to the sanctum sanctorum of the evening.
Cliffe wavered. Then his vanity succ.u.mbed. A few minutes later the supper guests in the tent of the _elite_ saw the entrance of a darkly splendid Duke of Alva, with a little sandalled G.o.ddess. All compact, it seemed, of ivory and fire, on his arm.
XI
The spring freshness of London, had long since departed. A crowded season; much animation in Parliament, where the government, to its own amazement, had rather gained than lost ground; industrial trouble at home, and foreign complications abroad; and in London the steady growth of a new plutocracy, the result, so far, of American wealth and American brides. In the first week of July, the outward things of the moment might have been thus summed up by any careful observer.
On a certain Tuesday night, the debate on a private member"s bill unexpectedly collapsed, and the House rose early. Ashe left the House with his secretary, but parted from him at the corner of Birdcage Walk, and crossed the park alone. He meant to join Kitty at a party in Piccadilly; there was just time to go home and dress; and he walked at a quick pace.
Two members sitting on the same side of the House with himself were also going home. One of them noticed the Under-Secretary.
"A very ineffective statement Ashe made to-night--don"t you think so?"
he said to his companion.
"Very! Really, if the government can"t take up a stronger line, the general public will begin to think there"s something in it."
"Oh, if you only shriek long enough and sharp enough in England something"s sure to come of it. Cliffe and his group have been playing a very shrewd game. The government will get their agreement approved all right, but Cliffe has certainly made some people on our side uneasy.
However--"
"However, what?" said the other, after a moment.
"I wish I thought that were the only reason for Ashe"s change of tone,"
said the first speaker, slowly.
"What do you mean?"
The two were intimate personal friends, belonging, moreover, to a group of evangelical families well known in English life; but even so, the answer came with reluctance:
"Well, you see, it"s not very easy to grapple in public with the man whose name all smart London happens to be coupling with that of your wife!"
"I say"--the other stood still, in genuine consternation and distress--"you don"t mean to say that there"s that in it!"
"You notice that the difference is not in _what_ Ashe says, but in _how_ he says it. He avoids all personal collision with Cliffe. The government stick to their case, but Ashe mentions everybody but Cliffe, and confutes all arguments but his. And meanwhile, of course, the truth is that Cliffe is the head and front of the campaign, and if he threw up to-morrow, everything would quiet down."
"And Lady Kitty is flirting with him at this particular moment? d.a.m.ned bad taste and bad feeling, to say the least of it!"
"You won"t find one of the Bristol lot consider that kind of thing when their blood is up!" said the other. "You remember the tales of old Lord Blackwater?"
"But is there really any truth in it? Or is it mere gossip?"
"Well, I hear that the behavior of both of them at Grosville Park last week was such that Lady Grosville vows she will never ask either of them again. And at Ascot, at Lord"s, the opera, Lady Kitty sits with him, talks with him, walks with him, the whole time, and won"t look at any one else. They must be asked together or neither will come--and "society," as far as I can make out, thinks it a good joke and is always making plans to throw them together."