"Very well. That would be a kind of separation, wouldn't it?"
"There would be no need to call it by any such name. Oh! Kitty!" cried
Ashe, "why can't you behave like a reasonable woman?"
"Separation," she repeated, steadily. "I know that's what your mother
wants."
A wave of sound reached them amid the green shadow of the yews. The
cheers that heralded Royalty had begun.
"Come!" said Kitty.
And she flew across the grass, reaching her place by the central tent
just as the Royalties drove up.
The Prime Minister sulked in-doors; and Kitty, with the most engaging
smiles, made his apologies. The heat--the fatigue of the speech--a
crushing headache, and a doctor's order!--he begged their Royal
Highnesses to excuse him. The Royal Highnesses were at first astonished,
inclined, perhaps, to take offence. But the party was so agreeable, and
Lady Kitty so charming a hostess, that the Premier's absence was soon
forgotten, and as the day cooled to a delicious evening, and the most
costly bands from town discoursed a melting music, as garlanded boats
appeared upon the river inviting passengers, and, with the dusk,
fireworks began to ascend from a little hill; as the trees shone green
and silver and rose-color in the Bengal lights, and amid the sweeping
clouds of smoke the wide stretches of the park, the close-packed groups
of human beings, appeared and vanished like the country and creatures of
a dream--the success of Lady Kitty's fete, the fame of her gayety and
her beauty, filled the air.
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