"We'll wait a moment, Ted," said Kit; "perhaps at the end it will be emptier again."
She stopped opposite one of the doors.
"Shall we go on to the balcony?" he asked. "There will be no one there."
"Yes. Oh, there is Mrs. Murchison! Take me to her. I'll follow you in a moment."
Ted swore gently under his breath.
"Oh, leave the Crœsum alone," he said. "Do come now, Kit. This is my last dance with you this evening."
But Kit dropped his arm.
"Fetch Toby," she said under her voice to Lord Comber; "fetch, you understand, and at once. He is over there." Then, without a pause, "So we meet again," she said to Mrs. Murchison. "You were right and I was wrong, for I said, do you remember, that the one way not to meet a person was to go to the same dance. And did you get all those great purchases of yours home safely? You were quite too charitable! What will you do with a hundred and forty fire-screens?—or was it a hundred and forty-one? Miss Murchison, what magnificent pearls you have! They are too beautiful! Now, if I wore pearls like yours, people would say they were not real, and they would be perfectly right."
Miss Murchison was what Kit would have called at first sight an uncomfortable sort of a girl, very pretty, beautiful indeed, but uncomfortable. What she should have said to Kit's praise of her pearls Kit could not have told you, but having made yourself agreeable to anyone, it is that person's business to reply in the same strain. Else, what happens to social and festive meetings? But Miss Murchison looked neither gratified nor embarrassed. Either would have shown a proper spirit.