He could answer for Lady Tranmore.  Why shouldn’t Lady Kitty spend the summer with her in Scotland?  No doubt Madame d’Estrees would be abroad.

“Then I must go with her,” said Kitty.

Ashe hesitated.

“Of course, if she wishes it.”

“But I don’t know that she will wish it.  She is not very fond of me,” said Kitty, doubtfully.  “Yes, I would like to stay with Lady Tranmore.  But will your cousin be there?”

“Miss Lyster?”

Kitty nodded.

“How can I tell?  Of course, she is often there.”

“It is quite curious,” said Kitty, after reflection, “how we dislike each other.  And it is so odd.  You know most people like me!”

She looked up at him without a trace of coquetry, rather with a certain timidity that feared possible rebuff.  “That’s always been my difficulty,” she went on, “till now.  Everybody spoils me.  I always get my own way.  In the convent I was indulged and flattered, and then they wondered that I made all sorts of follies.  I want a guide—­that’s quite certain—­somebody to tell me what to do.”

“I would offer myself for the post,” said Ashe, “but that I feel perfectly sure that you would never follow anybody’s advice in anything.”

“Yes, I would,” she said, wistfully.  “I would—­”

Ashe’s face changed.

“Ah, if you would—­”

She sprang up.  “Do you see “—­she pointed to some figures on a distant path—­“they are coming back from church.  You understand?—­nobody must know about my sister.  It will come round to Aunt Lina, of course; but I hope it’ll be when I’m gone.  If she knew now, I should go back to London to-day.”

Ashe made it clear to her that he would be discretion itself.  They left the bench, but, as they began to ascend the steps, Kitty turned back.

“I wish I hadn’t seen her,” she said, in a miserable tone, the tears flooding once more into her eyes.

Ashe looked at her with great kindness, but without speaking.  The moment of sharp pain passed, and she moved on languidly beside him.  But there was an infection in his strong, handsome presence, and her smiles soon came back.  By the time they neared the house, indeed, she seemed to be in wild spirits again.

Did he know, she asked him, that three more guests were coming that afternoon—­Mr. Darrell, Mr. Louis Harman, and—­Mr. Geoffrey Cliffe?  She laid an emphasis on the last name, which made Ashe say, carelessly: 

“You want to meet him so much?”

“Of course.  Doesn’t all the world?”

Ashe replied that he could only answer for himself, and as far as he was concerned he could do very well without Cliffe’s company at all times.

Whereupon Kitty protested with fire that other men were jealous of such a famous person because women liked him—­because—­

“Because the man’s a coxcomb and the women spoil him?”