of a chair, his chin on his hand, his
eyes fixed upon her, while she told her tale. It ended in a burst of
self-pity, as she remembered her collapse in the cottage, the
impossibility of finding any carriage in the small hamlet of which it
made part, the faint weariness of the night--

"I never slept," she said, piteously. "I got up at eight for the first
train, and now I feel"--she fell back in her chair, and whispered
desolately with shut eyes--"as if I should like to die!"

Ashe knelt down beside her.

"It's my fault, too, Kitty. I ought to have held you with a stronger
hand. I hated quarrelling with you. But--oh, my dear, my dear--"

She met the cry in silence, the tears running over her cheeks. Roughly,
impetuously, he gathered her in his arms and kissed her, as though he
would once more re-knit and reconsecrate the bond between them. She lay
passively against him, the tangle of her fair hair spread over his
shoulder--too frail and too exhausted for response.

"This won't do," he said, presently, disengaging himself; "you must have
some food and rest. Then we'll think what shall be done."

She roused herself suddenly as he went to the door.

"Why aren't you at the Foreign Office?"

"I sent a message early. Lawson came"--Lawson was his private
secretary--"but I must go down in an hour."

"William!"

Kitty had raised herself, and her eyes shone large and startled in the
small, tear-stained face.

"Yes." He paused a moment.

"William, is the list out?"

"Yes."

Kitty tottered to her feet.

"Is it all right?"

"I suppose so," he said, slowly. "It doesn't affect me."

And then, without waiting, he went into the hall and closed the door
behind him. He wrote a note to the Foreign Office to say that he should
not be at the office till the afternoon, and that important papers were
to be sent up to him. Then he told Wilson to bring wine and sandwiches
into the library for Lady Kitty, who had been detained by an accident on
the river the night before, and was much exhausted. No visitors were to
be admitted, except, of course, Lady Tranmore or Miss French.

When he returned to the library he found Kitty with crimson cheeks, her
hands locked behind her, walking up and down. As soon as she saw him she
motioned to him imperiously.

[Illustration: "HE GATHERED HER IN HIS ARMS"]

"Shut the door, William. I have something very important to say to you."

He obeyed her, and she walked up to him deliberately.