Then, as they drove away she
was glad that the darkness hid her from Lady Tranmore. For suddenly she
could not smile. She was filled with the perception that if Geoffrey
Cliffe did not now ask her to marry him, life would utterly lose its
savor, its carefully cherished and augmented savor, and youth would
abandon her. At the same time she realized that she would have to make a
fight of it, with every weapon she could muster.
IX
"Wasn't I expected?" said Darrell, with a chilly smile.
"Oh yes, sir--yes, sir!" said the Ashes' butler, as he looked
distractedly round the drawing-room. "I believe her ladyship will be in
directly. Will you kindly take a seat?"
The man's air of resignation convinced Darrell that Lady Kitty had
probably gone out without any orders to her servants, and had now
forgotten all about her luncheon-party--a state of things to which the
Hill Street household was, no doubt, well accustomed.
"I shall claim some lunch," he thought to himself, "whatever happens.
These young people want keeping in their place. Ah!"
For he had observed, placed on a small easel, the print of Madame de
Longueville in costume, and he put up his eye-glass to look at it.
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