ty 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. <i>Then</i> 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 <i>guest</i>!"

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 grass, 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 a