Ashe ran through it, then laid it
down with a gesture of scorn.
"Kitty apparently enjoyed a moonlight walk with Cliffe. Why shouldn't
she? Lady Grosville thinks the moon was made to sleep by--other people
don't."
"But, William!--at night--when everybody had gone to bed--escaping from
the house--they two alone!"
Lady Tranmore looked at him entreatingly, as though driven to protest,
and yet hating the sound of her own words.
Ashe laughed. He was smoking with an air so nonchalant that his mother's
heart sank. For she divined that criticism in the society around her
which she was never allowed to hear. Was it true, indeed, that his
natural indolence could not rouse itself even to the defence of a young
wife's reputation?
"All the fault of the Grosvilles," said Ashe, after a moment, lighting
another cigarette, "in shutting up their great heavy house, and drawing
their great heavy curtains on a May night, when all reasonable people
want to be out-of-doors. My dear mother, what's the good of paying any
attention to what people like Lady Grosville say of people like Kitty?
You might as well expect Deborah to hit it off with Ariel!"
"William, don't laugh!" said his mother, in distress.
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