Part 7 (2/2)
”Who was Madame d'Estrees?” said Ashe. Why should he wince so at the girl's name?--in that hard mouth?
Lady Grosville smiled.
”Well, I can tell you a good deal about that,” she said. ”Ah!--another time!”
For the door opened, and in came a group of guests, with a gush of talk and a rustling of silks and satins.
Everybody was gathered; dinner had been announced; and the white-haired and gouty Lord Grosville was in a state of seething impatience that not even the mild-voiced Dean of the neighboring cathedral, engaged in complimenting him on his speech at the Diocesan Conference, could restrain.
”Adelina, need we wait any longer?” said the master of the house, turning an angry eye upon his wife.
”Certainly not--she has had ample time,” said Lady Grosville, and rang the bell beside her.
Suddenly there was a whirlwind of noise in the hall, the angry barking of a small dog, the sound of a girl's voice laughing and scolding, the swish of silk skirts. A scandalized butler, obeying Lady Grosville's summons, threw the door open, and in burst Lady Kitty.
”Oh! I'm so sorry,” said the new-comer, in a tone of despair. ”But I couldn't leave him up-stairs, Aunt Lina! He'd eaten one of my shoes, and begun upon the other. And Julie's afraid of him. He bit her last week.
_May_ he sit on my knee? I know I can keep him quiet!”
[Ill.u.s.tration: ”A SLIM GIRL IN WHITE AT THE FAR END OF THE LARGE ROOM”]
Every conversation in the library stopped. Twenty amazed persons turned to look. They beheld a slim girl in white at the far end of the large room struggling with a gray terrier puppy which she held under her left arm, and turning appealing eyes towards Lady Grosville. The dog, half frightened, half fierce, was barking furiously. Lady Kitty's voice could hardly be heard through the din, and she was crimson with the effort to control her charge. Her lips laughed; her eyes implored. And to add to the effect of the apparition, a marked strangeness of dress was at once perceived by all the English eyes turned upon her. Lady Kitty was robed in the extreme of French fas.h.i.+on, which at that moment was a fas.h.i.+on of flounces; she was much _decolletee;_ and her fair, abundant hair, carried to a great height, and arranged with a certain calculated wildness around her small face, was surmounted by a large scarlet b.u.t.terfly which shone defiantly against the dark background of books.
”Kitty!” said Lady Grosville, advancing indignantly, ”what a dreadful noise! Pray give the dog to Parkin at once.”
Lady Kitty only held the struggling animal tighter.
”_Please_, Aunt Lina!--I'm afraid he'll bite! But he'll be quite good with me.”
”Why _did_ you bring him, Kitty? We can't have such a creature at dinner!” said Lady Grosville, angrily.
Lord Grosville advanced behind his wife.
”How do you do, Kitty? Hadn't you better put down the dog and come and be introduced to Mr. Rankine, who is to take you in to dinner?”
Lady Kitty shook her fair head, but advanced, still clinging to the dog, gave a smile and a nod to Ashe, and a bow to the young Tory member presented to her.
”You don't mind him?” she said, a flash of laughter in her dark eyes.
”We'll manage him between us, won't we?”
The young man, dazzled by her prettiness and her strangeness, murmured a hopeful a.s.sent. Lord Grosville, with the air of a man determined on dinner though the skies fall, offered his arm to Lady Edith Manley, the wife of the cabinet minister, and made for the dining-room. The stream of guests followed; when suddenly the puppy, perceiving on the floor a ball of wool which had rolled out of Lady Grosville's work-table, escaped in an ecstasy of mischief from his mistress's arm and flew upon the ball. Kitty rushed after him; the wool first unrolled, then caught; the table overturned and all its contents were flung pell-mell in the path of Lady Grosville, who, on the arm of the amused and astonished minister, was waiting in restrained fury till her guests should pa.s.s.
”I shall never get over this,” said Lady Kitty, as she leaned back in her chair, still panting, and quite incapable of eating any of the foods that were being offered to her in quick succession.
”I don't know that you deserve to,” said Ashe, turning a face upon her which was as grave as he could make it. The attention of every one else round the room was also in truth occupied with his companion. There was, indeed, a general buzz of conversation and a general pretence that Lady Kitty's proceedings might now be ignored. But in reality every guest, male or female, kept a stealthy watch on the red b.u.t.terfly and the sparkling face beneath it; and Ashe was well aware of it.
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