"This does you good, darling!" said Ashe, stooping down to look into his
wife's face, as she nestled beside him on the soft cushions of the
gondola.
Kitty gave him a slight smile, then said, with a furrowed brow:
"Who could ever have thought we should find maman here!"
"Don't have her on your mind!" said Ashe, with some sharpness. "I can't
have anything worrying you."
She slipped her hand into his.
"Is that man going to marry her--at last? She called him 'Markham.'
That's new."
"Looks rather like it," said Ashe. "Then
he'll have to look after the
debts!"
They began to piece together what they knew of Colonel Warington and his
relation to Madame d'Estrees. It was not much. But Ashe believed that
originally Warington had not been in love with her at all. There had
been a love-affair between her and Warington's younger brother, a smart
artillery officer, when she was the widowed Lady Blackwater. She had
behaved with more heart and scruple than she had generally been known to
do in these matters, and the young officer adored her--hoped, indeed, to
marry her. But he was called on--in Paris--to fight a duel on her
account, and was killed.
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