She heard his step outside, hastily locked her despatch-box, threw a shawl over it, and lay back languidly on her pillows, awaiting him.
XVIII
The following morning, early, a note was brought to Kitty from Madame d"Estrees:
"Darling Kitty,--Will you join us to-night in an expedition? You know that Princess Margherita is staying on the Grand Ca.n.a.l?--in one of the Mocenigo palaces. There is to be a serenata in her honor to-night--not one of those vulgar affairs which the hotels get up, but really good music and fine voices--money to be given to some hospital or other. Do come with us. I suppose you have your own gondola, as we have. The gondolas who wish to follow meet at the Piazzetta, weather permitting, eight o"clock. I know, of course, that you are not going out. But this is _only_ music!--and for a charity. One just sits in one"s gondola, and follows the music up the ca.n.a.l. Send word by bearer. Your fond mother,
"Marguerite d"Estrees."
Kitty tossed the note over to Ashe. "Aren"t you dining out somewhere to-night?"
Her voice was listless. And as Ashe lifted his head from the cabinet papers which had just reached him by special messenger, his attention was disagreeably recalled from high matters of state to the very evident delicacy of his wife. He replied that he had promised to dine with Prince S---- at Danieli"s, in order to talk Italian politics. "But I can throw it over in a moment, if you want me. I came to Venice for _you_, darling," he said, as he rose and joined her on the balcony which commanded a fine stretch of the ca.n.a.l.
"No, no! Go and dine with your prince. I"ll go with maman--Margaret and I. At least, Margaret must, of course, please herself!"
She shrugged her shoulders, and then added, "Maman"s probably in the pink of society here. Venice doesn"t take its cue from people like Aunt Lina!"
Ashe smiled uncomfortably. He was in truth by this time infinitely better acquainted with the incidents of Madame d"Estrees"s past career than Kitty was. He had no mind whatever that Kitty should become less ignorant, but his knowledge sometimes made conversation difficult.
Kitty was perfectly aware of his embarra.s.sment.
"You never tell me--" she said, abruptly. "Did she really do such dreadful things?"
"My dear Kitty!--why talk about it?"
Kitty flushed, then threw a flower into the water below with a defiant gesture.
"What does it matter? It"s all so long ago. I have nothing to do with what I did ten years ago--nothing!"
"A convenient doctrine!" laughed Ashe. "But it cuts both ways. You get neither the good of your good nor the bad of your bad."
"I have no good," said Kitty, bitterly.
"What"s the matter with you, miladi?" said Ashe, half scolding, half tender. "You growl over my remarks as though you were your own small dog with a bone. Come here and let me tell you the news."
And drawing the sofa up to the open window which commanded the marvellous waterway outside, with its rows of palaces on either hand, he made her lie down while he read her extracts from his letters.
Margaret French, who was writing at the farther side of the room, glanced at them furtively from time to time. She saw that Ashe was trying to charm away the languor of his companion by that talk of his, shrewd, humorous, vehement, well informed, which made him so welcome to the men of his own cla.s.s and mode of life. And when he talked to a woman as he was accustomed to talk to men, that woman felt it a compliment.
Under the stimulus of it, Kitty woke up, laughed, argued, teased, with something of her natural animation.
Presently, indeed, the voices had sunk so much and the heads had drawn so close together that Margaret French slipped away, under the impression that they were discussing matters to which she was not meant to listen.
She had hardly closed the door when Kitty drew herself away from Ashe, and holding his arm with both hands looked strangely into his eyes.
"You"re awfully good to me, William. But, you know--you don"t tell me secrets!"
"What do you mean, darling?"
"You don"t tell me the real secrets--what Lord Palmerston used to tell to Lady Palmerston!"
"How do you know what he used to tell her?" said Ashe, with a laugh. But his forehead had reddened.
"One hears--and one guesses--from the letters that have been published.
Oh, I understand quite well! You can"t trust me!"
Ashe turned aside and began to gather up his papers.
"Of course," said Kitty, a little hoa.r.s.ely, "I know it"s my own fault, because you used to tell me much more. I suppose it was the way I behaved to Lord Parham?"
She looked at him rather tremulously. It was the first time since her illness began that she had referred to the incidents at Haggart.
"Look here!" said Ashe, in a tone of decision; "I shall _really_ give up talking politics to you if it only reminds you of disagreeable things."
She took no notice.
"Is Lord Parham behaving well to you--now--William?"
Ashe colored hotly. As a matter of fact, in his own opinion, Lord Parham was behaving vilely. A measure of first-rate importance for which he was responsible was already in danger of being practically shelved, simply, as it seemed to him, from a lack of elementary trustworthiness in Lord Parham. But as to this he had naturally kept his own counsel with Kitty.
"He is not the most agreeable of customers," he said, gayly. "But I shall get through. Pegging away does it."
"And then to see how our papers flatter him!" cried Kitty. "How little people know, who think they know! It would be amusing to show the world the real Lord Parham."
She looked at her husband with an expression that struck him disagreeably. He threw away his cigarette, and his face changed.
"What we have to do, my dear Kitty, is simply to hold our tongues."
Kitty sat up in some excitement.
"That man never hears the truth!"
Ashe shrugged his shoulders. It seemed to him incredible that she should pursue this particular topic, after the incidents at Haggart.
"That"s not the purpose for which Prime Ministers exist. Anyway, _we_ can"t tell it him."
Undaunted, however, by his tone, and with what seemed to him extraordinary excitability of manner, Kitty reminded him of an incident in the life of a bygone administration, when the near relative of an English statesman, staying at the time in the statesman"s house, had sent a communication to one of the quarterlies attacking his policy and belittling his character, by means of information obtained in the intimacy of a country-house party.
"One of the most treacherous things ever done!" said Ashe, indignantly.
"Fair fight, if you like! But if that kind of thing were to spread, I for one should throw up politics to-morrow."
"Every one said it did a vast deal of good," persisted Kitty.
"A precious sort of good! Yes--I believe Parham in particular profited by it--more shame to him! If anybody ever tried to help me in that sort of way--anybody, that is, for whom I felt the smallest responsibility--I know what I should do."
"What?" Kitty fell back on her cushions, but her eye still held him.