"Lady Kitty, I don't like to hear you talk like this. It's wild, and
it's also--I beg your pardon--"
"In bad taste?" she said, catching him up breathlessly. "That's what you
meant, isn't it? You said it to me before, when I called you handsome."
"Pshaw!" he said, in vexation. She watched him throw himself back and
feel for his cigarette-case; a gesture of her hand gave him leave; she
waited, smiling, till he had taken a few calming whiffs. Then she gently
moved towards him.
"Don't be angry with me!" she said, in a sweet, low voice. "Don't you
understand how hard it is--to have that nature--and then to come here
out of the convent--where one had lived on dreams--and find one's
self--"
She turned her head away. Ashe put down his new-lit cigarette.
"Find yourself?" he repeated.
"Everybody scorns me!" she said, her brow drooping.
Ashe exclaimed.
"You know it's true. My mother is not received. Can you deny that?"
"She has many friends," said Ashe.
"She is
not received. When I speak of her no one answers me. Lady
Grosville asked me here--
me--out of charity. It would be thought a
disgrace to marry me--"
"Look here, Lady Kitty!--"
"And I"--she wrung her small hands, as though she clasped the necks of
her enemies--"I would never
look at a man who did not think it the
glory of his life to win me.
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