Kitty touched him on the shoulder as he was
standing on the stairs, apparently absorbed in a teasing skirmish with a
charming child in her first season, who thought him the most delightful
of men.
"I'm ready, William."
He turned sharply, and saw that she was alone.
"Come along, then! In five minutes more I should have been asleep on the
stairs."
They descended. Kitty went for her cloak. Ashe sent for the carriage. As
he was standing on the steps Cliffe pushed past him and called for a
hansom. It came in the rear of two or three carriages already under the
portico. He ran along the pavement and jumped in. The doors were just
being shut by the linkman when a little figure in a white cloak flew
down the steps of the house and held up a hand to the driver of the
hansom.
"Do you see that?" said Lady Parham, in a voice of suppressed but
contemptuous amazement, as she turned to Mary Lyster, who was driving
home with her. "Call my carriage, please!" she said, imperiously, to one
of the footmen at the door. Her carriage, as it happened, was
immediately behind the hansom; but the hansom could not move because of
the small lady who had jumped upon the step and was leaning eagerly
forward.
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