seen her two or three times since his first introduction to her--once at
a ball to which Lady Grosville had taken her, and once on the terrace of
the House of Commons, where he had strolled up and down with her for a
most amusing and stimulating hour, while her mother entertained a group
of elderly politicians. And the following day she had come alone--her
own choice--to take tea with Lady Tranmore, on that lady's invitation,
as prompted by her son. Ashe himself had arrived towards the end of the
visit, and had found a Lady Kitty in the height of the fashion, stiff
mannered, and flushed to a deep red by her own consciousness that she
could not possibly be making a good impression. At sight of him she
relaxed, and talked a great deal, but not wisely; and when she was gone,
Ashe could get very little opinion of any kind from his mother, who had,
however, expressed a wish that she should come and visit them in the
country.

Since then he frankly confessed to himself that in the intervals of his
new official and administrative work he had been a good deal haunted by
memories of this strange child, her eyes, her grace--even in her fits of
proud shyness--and the way in which, as he had put her into her cab
after the visit to Lady Tranmore, her tiny hand had lingered in his, a
mute, astonishing appeal. Haunted, too, by what he heard of her fortunes
and surroundings. What was the real truth of Madame d'Estrées'
situation? During the preceding weeks some ugly rumors had reached Ashe
of financial embarrassment in that quarter, of debts risen to
mountainous height, of crisis and possible disappearance. Then these
rumors were met by others, to the effect that Colonel Warington, the old
friend and support of the d'Estrées' household, had come to the rescue,
that the crisis had been averted, and that the three weekly evenings, so
well known and so well attended, would go on; and with this phase of the
story there mingled, as Ashe was well aware, not the slightest breath of