He stretched out his hand.  Kitty hesitated, then slowly unclosed her own, and held out the small, white palm on which lay the crumpled slip.

Ashe read it and tore it up.

“That game, Kitty, was hardly worth the candle!”

“It was a perfectly harmless remark—­and only meant for Eddie!  Any one else than Lord Parham would have laughed. Then I might have begged his pardon.”

“It is what you ought to do now,” said Ashe.  “A little note from you, Kitty—­you could write it to perfection—­”

“Certainly not,” said Kitty, hastily, locking her hands behind her.

“You prefer to have failed in hospitality and manners,” he said, bitterly.  “Well, I’m afraid if you don’t feel any disgrace in it I do.  Lord Parham in our guest!”

And Ashe turned on his heel and would have left her, when Kitty caught him by the arm.

“William!”

She had grown very pale.

“Yes.”

“You’ve never spoken to me like that before, William—­never!  But—­as I told you long ago, you can stop it all if you like—­in a moment.”

“I don’t know what you mean, Kitty—­but we mustn’t stay arguing here any longer—­”

“No!—­but—­don’t you remember?  I told you, you can always send me away.  Then I shouldn’t be putting spokes in your wheel.”

“I don’t deny,” said Ashe, slowly, “it might be wisest if, next spring, you stayed here, for part at least of the session—­or abroad.  It is certainly difficult carrying on politics under these conditions.  I could, of course, come backward and forward—­”

Kitty’s brown eyes that were fixed upon his face wavered a little, and she grew even whiter.

“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