"I suppose you--everybody--thinks her very agreeable?" she said,
sharply, her eyes returning to Miss Lyster.

"She is a most excellent gossip," said Ashe. "I always go to her for the
news."

Kitty glanced again.

"I can see that already she detests me."

"In half an hour?"

The girl nodded.

"She has looked at me twice--about. But she has made up her mind--and
she never changes." Then with an abrupt alteration of note she looked
round the room. "I suppose your English dining-rooms are all like this?
One might be sitting in a hearse. And the pictures--no! _Quelles
horreurs_!"

She raised her shoulders again impetuously, frowning at a huge
full-length opposite of Lord Grosville as M.F.H., a masterpiece indeed
of early Victorian vulgarity.

Then suddenly, hastily, with that flashing softness which so often
transformed her expression, she turned towards him, trying to make
amends.

"But the library--that was _bien_--ah! _tr-rès, tr-rès_ bien_!"