You know very well that--till this last
business--And don't imagine that I feel myself a model, either!"
"No," she said, with a long sigh. "Of course, you ought to have beaten
me."
He smiled, with an unsteady lip.
"Perhaps I might still try it."
She shook her head.
"Too late. I am not a child any more."
Then throwing her soft arms round his neck, she clung to him, saying the
most adorable and poignant things, dissolved, indeed, in a murmuring
anguish of remorse; until, with the same unexpectedness as before, she
again disengaged herself--urging, insisting that he should send her
away.
"Let me go and live at Haggart, baby and I." (Haggart was one of the
Tranmore "places," recently handed over to the young people.) "You can
come and see me sometimes. I'll garden--and write books. Half the smart
women I know write stories--or plays. Why shouldn't I?"
"Why, indeed? Meanwhile, madam, I take you to Scotland--next week."
"Scotland?" She pressed her hands over her eyes.
"'Anywhere--anywhere--out of the world!'"
"Kitty!" Startled by the abandonment of her words, Ashe caught her hands
and held them. "Kitty!--- you regret--"
"That man? Do I?" She opened her eyes, frowning.
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