"I think I did. I was coming through the narrow part of Kensington, and was stopped by a block; just caught sight of your chief, and jumped out of my cab to have a word with her. She told me I should find you, and gave me that." De Burgh went on: "So this is the tremendous laboratory where Mrs. Needham forges her thunderbolts," looking round with some curiosity.
"And where I forge my thunderbolts, said Katherine, laughing.
"Thunderbolts!" echoed De Burgh, looking keenly at her. "No! where you launch the lightning that either withers or kindles life-giving flames."
"Really, Lord De Burgh, you are positively poetical! I never dreamed of your developing this faculty when you tried to teach me how to drive at Castleford."
"No! it did not exist then—now I want to tell you of the cause of its growth, you have silenced me often enough. To-day I will speak, Katherine."
"If you please, 'm—there's twopence to pay," said the demure Ford, advancing with a letter.
Half amused and partly relieved by the interruption, Katherine sought for and produced the requisite coin, and then took the letter with a look of some anxiety.
"It is my own writing," she said, "it is one of the envelopes I left with Cis." Opening it and glancing at the contents her color rose, and her bosom heaved. "Oh! do look at this," she cried.
De Burgh rose and read over her shoulder.
"Dear Auntie,