Lord Parham looked at the paper in mystification. It contained these words:
"Hope you"ve been counting the "I"s." I make it fifty-seven.--K."
And in the corner of the paper a thumb-nail sketch of himself, perorating, with a garland of capital I"s round his neck.
The Premier"s face became brick-red, then gray again. He folded up the paper and put it in his waistcoat-pocket.
The meeting had broken up. For the common herd, it was to be followed by sports in the park and refreshments in big tents. For the gentry, Lady Kitty had a garden-party to which Royalty was coming. And as her guests streamed out of the marquee, Lord Parham approached his hostess.
"I think this belongs to you, Lady Kitty." And taking from his pocket a folded slip of paper he offered it to her.
Kitty looked at him. Her color was high, her eyes sparkled.
"Nothing to do with me!" she said, gayly, as she glanced at it. "But I"ll look for the owner."
"Sorry to give you the trouble," said Lord Parham, with a ceremonious inclination. Then, turning to Ashe, he remarked that he was extremely tired--worn out, in fact--and would ask his host"s leave to desert the garden-party while he attended to some most important letters. Ashe offered to escort him to the house. "On the contrary, look after your guests," said the Premier, dryly, and, beckoning to the Liberal peer who had been his chairman, he engaged him in conversation, and the two presently vanished through a window open to the terrace.
Kitty had been joined meanwhile by Eddie Helston, and the two stood talking together, a flushed, excited pair. Ashe overtook them.
"May I speak to you a moment, Kitty?"
Eddie Helston glanced at the fine form and stiffened bearing of his host, understood that his presence counted for something in the annoyance of Ashe"s expression, and departed abashed.
"I should like to see that paper, Kitty, if you don"t mind."
His frown and straightened lip brought fresh wildness into Kitty"s expression.
"It is my property." She kept one hand behind her.
"I heard you just disavow that."
Kitty laughed angrily.
"Yes--that"s the worst of Lord Parham--one has to tell so many lies for his _beaux yeux_!"
"You must give it me, please," said Ashe, quietly. "I ought to know where I am with Lord Parham. He is clearly bitterly offended--by something, and I shall have to apologize."
Kitty breathed fast.
"Well, don"t let"s quarrel before the county!" she said, as she turned aside into a shrubbery walk edged by clipped yews and hidden from the big lawn. There she paused and confronted him. "How did you know I wrote it?"
"I saw you write it and throw it."
He stretched out his hand. Kitty hesitated, then slowly unclosed her own, and held out the small, white palm on which lay the crumpled slip.
Ashe read it and tore it up.
"That game, Kitty, was hardly worth the candle!"
"It was a perfectly harmless remark--and only meant for Eddie! Any one else than Lord Parham would have laughed. _Then_ I might have begged his pardon."
"It is what you ought to do now," said Ashe. "A little note from you, Kitty--you could write it to perfection--"
"Certainly not," said Kitty, hastily, locking her hands behind her.
"You prefer to have failed in hospitality and manners," he said, bitterly. "Well, I"m afraid if you don"t feel any disgrace in it I do.
Lord Parham in our _guest_!"
And Ashe turned on his heel and would have left her, when Kitty caught him by the arm.
"William!"
She had grown very pale.
"Yes."
"You"ve never spoken to me like that before, William--never! But--as I told you long ago, you can stop it all if you like--in a moment."
"I don"t know what you mean, Kitty--but we mustn"t stay arguing here any longer--"
"No!--but--don"t you remember? I told you, you can always send me away.
Then I shouldn"t be putting spokes in your wheel."
"I don"t deny," said Ashe, slowly, "it might be wisest if, next spring, you stayed here, for part at least of the session--or abroad. It is certainly difficult carrying on politics under these conditions. I could, of course, come backward and forward--"
Kitty"s brown eyes that were fixed upon his face wavered a little, and she grew even whiter.
"Very well. That would be a kind of separation, wouldn"t it?"
"There would be no need to call it by any such name. Oh! Kitty!" cried Ashe, "why can"t you behave like a reasonable woman?"
"Separation," she repeated, steadily. "I know that"s what your mother wants."
A wave of sound reached them amid the green shadow of the yews. The cheers that heralded Royalty had begun.
"Come!" said Kitty.
And she flew across the gra.s.s, reaching her place by the central tent just as the Royalties drove up.
The Prime Minister sulked in-doors; and Kitty, with the most engaging smiles, made his apologies. The heat--the fatigue of the speech--a crushing headache, and a doctor"s order!--he begged their Royal Highnesses to excuse him. The Royal Highnesses were at first astonished, inclined, perhaps, to take offence. But the party was so agreeable, and Lady Kitty so charming a hostess, that the Premier"s absence was soon forgotten, and as the day cooled to a delicious evening, and the most costly bands from town discoursed a melting music, as garlanded boats appeared upon the river inviting pa.s.sengers, and, with the dusk, fireworks began to ascend from a little hill; as the trees shone green and silver and rose-color in the Bengal lights, and amid the sweeping clouds of smoke the wide stretches of the park, the close-packed groups of human beings, appeared and vanished like the country and creatures of a dream--the success of Lady Kitty"s fete, the fame of her gayety and her beauty, filled the air. She flashed hither and thither, in a dress embroidered with wild roses and a hat festooned with them--attended always by Eddie Helston, by various curates who cherished a hopeless attachment to her, and by a fat German grand-duke, who had come in the wake of the Royalties.
Her cleverness, her resource, her organizing power were lauded to the skies, Royalty was gracious, and the grand-duke resentfully asked an aide-de-camp on the way home why he had not been informed that such a pretty person awaited him.
"I should den haf looked beforehand--as vel as tinking behind," said the grand-duke, as he wrapped himself sentimentally in his military cloak, to meditate on Lady Kitty"s brown eyes.
Meanwhile Lord Parham remained closeted in his sitting-room with his secretary. Ashe tried to gain admittance, but in vain. Lord Parham pleaded great fatigue and his letters; and asked for a _Bradshaw_.
"His lordship has inquired if there is a train to-night," said the little secretary, evidently much fl.u.s.tered.