ffe had been disagreeably surprised to see him that
afternoon. Perhaps it was the sudden sense of antagonism acting on the
man's excitable nature that had made him fling himself into the wild
nonsense he had talked with Lady Kitty.

And thenceforward Ashe's thoughts were possessed by Kitty only--Kitty in
her two aspects, of the morning and the afternoon. He dressed in a
reverie, and went down-stairs still dreaming.

* * * * *

At dinner he found himself responsible for Mary Lyster. Kitty was on the
other side of the table, widely separated both from himself and Cliffe.
She was in a little Empire dress of blue and silver, as extravagantly
simple as her gown of the afternoon had been extravagantly elaborate.

Ashe observed the furtive study that the Grosville girls could not help
bestowing upon her--upon her shoulder-straps and long, bare arms, upon
her high waist and the blue and silver bands in her hair. Kitty herself
sat in a pensive or proud silence. The Dean was beside her, but she
scarcely spoke to him, and as to the young man from the neighborhood who
had taken her in, he was to her as though he were not.

"Has there been a row?" Ashe inquired, in a low voice, of his companion.

Mary looked at him quietly.

"Lord Grosville asked them not to play--because of the servants."

"Good!" said Ashe. "The servants were, of course, playing cards in the
house-keeper's room."

"Not at all. They were singing hymns with Lady Grosville."

Ashe looked incredulous.

"Only the slaveys and scullery maids that couldn't help themselves.
Never mind. Was Lady Kitty amenable?"

"She seems to have made Lord Grosville very angry. Lady Grosville and I
smoothed him down."

"Did you?" said Ashe. "That was nice of you."

Mary colored a little, and did not reply. Presently Ashe resumed.

"Aren't you as sorry for her as I am?"

"For Lady Kitty? I should think she managed to amuse herself pretty
well."

"She seems to me the most deplorable tragic little person," said Ashe,
slowly.

Miss Lyster laughed.

"I really don't see it," she said.

"Oh yes, you do," he persisted--"if you think a moment. Be kind to
her--won't you?"

She drew herself up with a cold dignity.

"I confess that she has never attracted me in the least."

Ashe returned to his dinner, dimly conscious that he had spoken like a
fool.

When the ladies had withdrawn, the conversation fell on some important
news from the Far