She looked at him with sudden amazement, and then her merriment broke out in a series of silvery peals. She turned to Edwardes and repeated in a mockery of awed surprise.
"He wants to have a dance! Do my ears deceive me? Hamilton whom we can't drag to a party with a truant officer wants a dance."
Edwardes smilingly lifted the cloak from her shoulders and held out his hand. "Good-night. Try to get me an invitation," he begged. "Mr. Burton, can't I drop you at your house?"
"If you don't mind." The elderly gentleman rose and made his way toward the hall, with a step that wavered from the line. When they had gone, Hamilton accompanied his sister to the stairs, with an arm about her waist.
"Mary," he suggested, "a question has just occurred to me. What has become of your duke?"
She turned on the landing and laughed.
"When I came back from abroad, you begged me to rid myself of foreign affectations," she announced. "He was one of them and I took your advice."
"I only begged you to drop your affectations of speech. What I called your pidgin English," he assured her. "I didn't seek to hamper your young affections."
"Then I will reply to your question in very colloquial American," she retorted. "As to the duke—I tied a can to him." She turned and ran lightly up the stairs.