"But," reproachfully, "would you want to get away?"
She hesitates, and, lifting one arm, runs her fingers coaxingly through the hair fashion has left him.
"I don't want to go away now, at all events," she temporizes sweetly. Then, a moment later, "But I must, nevertheless. Come," nervously, "we have been here a long time, and Madam O'Connor will be angry with me; and besides," pityingly, "you have all that long drive home still before you."
"I forgot all about the time," says Desmond, truthfully. "You are right: we must go in. Good-night again, my own."
Without waiting for permission this time, he stoops and presses his lips to hers. An instant later he knows with a thrill of rapture that his kiss has been returned.
CHAPTER XXIII.
How Mary Browne makes confession, though not by creed a Romanist; and how those who receive it are far removed from being holy fathers!—Moreover, I would have you see there is more acting off the stage than on it.
Monica's week at [Aghyohillbeg] is drawing to a close. The day has dawned that is to usher in at even the famous representation of "The School for Scandal," as given by Miss Fitzgerald, Captain Cobbett, etc.
The whole house is topsy-turvy, no room being sacred from the actors and actresses (save the mark!), and all the servants are at their wit's end. There have been men down from the Gayety Theatre, Dublin, who have seen about the stage, and there have been other men from the village of Rossmoyne to help in the decoration of the ballroom, and between these two different sets of men an incessant war has been raging for many days.