The poor blundering Jook!  Always saying the most maddening things under the firm conviction that it was the most delicate compliment.

Kitty was too much in earnest to mind it now, though.  “Do you know,” she went on, “that from the very first day I came into the house I was determined to captivate you?—­that every word and every look was directed to that end?  I have been nothing but an actress all through.  I have done it before, hundreds and hundreds of times, but I never felt the shame of it until now—­because—­because—­”

“Because you never loved any one before?  Is that it, Kitty?” said the Jook tenderly.

“Oh, I don’t know,” said Kitty desperately.  “How can I tell?  But it’s all Helen’s fault.  If she had introduced you to me in a rational way, I should never have gone on so.  But she wouldn’t, and I was piqued—­”

“I must exonerate Miss Helen,” interrupted the Jook.  “She wanted to introduce me, and I declined.  I am sure I don’t know why—­English reserve, I suppose.  I had not seen you then, you know, and some of the people here are such a queer lot that I rather dreaded new acquaintances.”

“Not Helen’s fault?” wailed Kitty.  “Oh, this is stolen—­oh, poor Helen!”

Naturally, the Jook was utterly bewildered, but as for me I sprang up into a sitting posture, for the meaning of Kitty’s behavior had just flashed upon me.  Absolutely, the poor little goose thought that in accepting the Jook, as she was evidently dying to do, she would be robbing me of my lover.  And she never guessed at my own little romance, tucked away safely in the most secret corner of my heart, which put any man save one quite out of the question for me.  If I had stopped to think, I suppose I should not have done what I did, but in my surprise the words came out before I thought:  “Good gracious, Kitty my dear! do take the Jook if you want him! I don’t.”

I could not help laughing when I realized what I had done.  A little shriek from Kitty and a very British exclamation from the Jook, a slight scuffle of chairs and a sense, rather than sound, of confusion, announced the effect of my words.

I waited for their reply, but dead silence prevailed, so I was obliged to speak again.  “You needn’t be alarmed,” I said, peering cautiously through the chinks in the blinds, for I had approached the window by this time.  “I didn’t mean to listen, but I couldn’t get out of the way, and I never intended to let you or any one else know that I had heard your conversation.  I’m awfully sorry that I have disturbed you, but, as I am in for it now, I might as well go on.”

There I stopped, for I didn’t exactly know what to say, and I hoped that one of them would “give me a lead.”  I could just catch a glimpse of their faces in the moonlight.  The Jook was staring straight at the window-shutter behind which I lurked, and the wrath and disgust expressed in his handsome features set me off into a silent chuckle.  I was sorry for Kitty, though.  Her face drooped as if it were weighed down by its own blushes, and the long lashes quivered upon the hot cheeks.