said, quietly. "I imagined Kitty
accepted it."

"I never thought of it from that day to this," said Kitty, who had
clasped her hands behind her head and was staring at the ceiling. "Say,
please, that"--she spaced out the words deliberately--"Mr. and Lady
Kitty Ashe--are unable to accept--Lord and Lady Parham's
invitation--etc.--"

"Kitty!" said Margaret, firmly, "there must be a 'regret' and a 'kind.'
Think! Ten days! The party is next week!"

"No 'regret,' and no 'kind'!" said Kitty, still staring overhead. "It's
my affair, please, Margaret, altogether. And I'll see the note before it
goes, or you'll be putting in civilities."

Margaret, in despair, looked entreatingly at Ashe. He and she had often
conspired before this to soften down Kitty's enormities. But he said
nothing--made not the smallest sign.

With difficulty Margaret got a few more directions out of Kitty, over
whom a shade of sombre taciturnity had now fallen. Then, saying she
would write the notes down-stairs and come back, she gathered up her
basketful of letters and departed.

As soon as she was alone with Ashe, Kitty took up a novel beside her,
and pretended to be absorbed in it.

He hesitated a moment, then he stooped over her and took her hand.

"Why did you come in to visit me, Kitty?" he said, in a low voice.

"I don't know," was her indifferent reply, and her hand pulled itself
away, though not with violence.

"I wish I could understand you, Kitty." His tone was not quite steady.

"Well, I don't understand myself!" said Kitty, shortly, reaching out for
a bunch of roses that Margaret had just brought her, and burying her
face among them.

"Perhaps, if you submitted the problem to me," said Ashe, laughing, "we
might be able to thresh it out together!"

He folded his arms and leaned against the foot of the bed, delighting
his eyes with the vision of her amid the folds of muslin and lace, and
all the costly refinements of pillow and coverlet with which she liked
to surround herself at that hour of the morning. She might have been a
French princess of the old regime, receiving her court.

Kitty shook her head. The roses fell idly from her hands, and made
bright patches of blush pink about her. Ashe went on:

"Anyway, dear, don't give silly tongues <i>too</i> good a handle!"

He threw her a gay comrade's look, as though to say that they both knew
the folly of the world, but he perhaps the better, as he was the elder.

"You mean," sai