'll tell William--or write home to mother?"

And in her excitement she began to chatter fast and loudly, mostly to
Sir Richard--repeating some of the Venice tales she had told in the
gondola--with much inconsequence and extravagance. The old man listened,
his hands on his stick, his eyes on the ground, the expression on his
strong mouth hostile or sarcastic. It was a relief to everybody when
Ashe's step was heard stumbling up the dark stairs, and the door opened
on his friendly and courteous presence.

"Why, Polly!--and Cousin Richard! I wondered where you had hidden
yourselves."

Mary's bright, involuntary smile transformed her. Ashe sat down beside
her, and they were soon deep in all sorts of gossip--relations,
acquaintance, politics, and what not. All Mary's stiffness disappeared.
She became the elegant, agreeable woman, of whom dinner-parties were
glad. Ashe plunged into the pleasant malice of her talk, which ranged
through the good and evil fortunes--mostly the latter--of half his
acquaintance; discussed the debts, the love-affairs, and the follies of
his political colleagues or Parliamentary foes; how the Foreign
Secretary had been getting on at Balmoral--how so-and-so had been ruined
at the Derby and restored to sanity and solvency by the Oaks--how Lady
Parham, at Hatfield, had been made to know her place by the French
Ambassador--and the like; passing thereby a charming half-hour.

Meanwhile Kitty, Margaret French, and Sir Richard kept up intermittent
remarks, pausing at every other phrase to gather the crumbs that fell
from the table of the other two.

Kitty was very weary, and a dead weight had fallen on her spirits. If
Sir Richard had thought her bad form ten minutes before, his unspoken
mind now declared her stupid. Meanwhile Kitty was saying to herself, as
she watched her husband and Mary:

"I used to amuse William just as well--last year!"

When the door closed on them, Kitty fell back on her cushions with an
"ouf!" of relief. William came back in a few minutes from showing the
visitors the back way to their hotel, and stood beside his wife with an
anxious face.

"They were too much for you, darling. They stayed too long."

"How you and Mary chattered!" said Kitty, with a little pout. But at the
same moment she slipped an appealing hand into his.

Ashe clasped the hand, and laughed.

"I always told you she was an excellent gossip."

* * * * *

Sir Richard and