“You might guess, I imagine, but I shall not gratify your vanity by telling you.”
She gave a start, and shot a quick, indignant look up at him. “Gratify me! That would not gratify me, I assure you!”
“You take too much for granted, Miss Taverner. What would not gratify you?”
She bit her lip. “You lose no opportunity to put me in the wrong, Lord Worth,” she said in a mortified voice.
He smiled, and as their hands joined in the dance pressed hers slightly. “Don’t look so downcast. I did mean just what you thought. Are you satisfied?”
“No, not at all,” said Judith crossly. “This is a foolish conversation; I do not like it. I was glad to see you here to-night, for I wanted particularly to speak to you, but you are in one of your disagreeable moods, I see.”
“On the contrary, my temper is more than usually complaisant. But you are behindhand. I have heard the news, and must wish you joy.”
“Wish me joy?” repeated Judith, looking at him in a startled way. “What can you mean?”
“I understand you are to become a Duchess in the near future. You must allow me to offer you my sincere felicitations.”
They were separated at this moment by the movement of the dance. Judith’s brain, as she went down the set, was whirling; she could scarcely perform her part in the dance, nor contain her impatience till she and Worth came together again. No sooner were they confronting each other once more than she demanded: “How can you talk so? What do you mean?”