"You may, he is your friend; you will be much with us."
"Thank you, for the two-fold kindness. Now gladly shall I be your
Mercury. Good-night," and lifting her hand to his lips, he was gone.
"Then you really mean to wed Colonel Haughton?" enquired Delrose in unsteady tone.
"Come and sit beside me, Kate; you sat beside that other man. Gad! I feel like shooting the follow."
"Mere bravado; gentlemen only meet their equals."
"Don't take that tone with me Kate, or by heaven he shall suffer."
"Good-night Major Delrose," she said mockingly. "I leave your presence, sans ceremonie as you entered mine."
And with the gas-light lighting up red-robes, jewels, coal-black tresses and a smile all cruel, she was about to leave him.
"Stay, Kate, I command you. How will it be when I set the London world on their ear, over your parentage, daughter of a nobody, your gold from the Cosmopolitan Laundry."
Kate winced.