"Nevertheless, I have read your thoughts—I often do—I can read your cousin's; what a different book! Yet she is a splendid creature—how desperately—"
And Kate, listening with all her soul, was almost startled into a scream by a sudden hand laid on her arm, and a breathless voice exclaiming—
"I have just seen Lady Elizabeth, Miss Vernon, and I ran after you to hear what all this arrangement about the band is. Ah, how do you do, Effingham?"
And the two Miss Meredyths were incorporated in their party.
The rest of the day passed over pleasantly enough; the pictures, the band, and the gardens kept them free from those "awful pauses" which so often desolate a day spent with country friends; while Lord Effingham's unwonted exertions to please and amuse Lady Desmond, pro tem. hushed every doubt, and enabled her to bear up heroically under the rampant agreeability of poor Mr. Storey at dinner.
"Well, my dear," cried his wife, as she was putting on her bonnet, previous to her departure, "I am sure I have had the most delightful day, and, what is the best of all, is the prospect of such happiness and success before you—a more elegant man I never met, and so taken up with you—"
"What are you talking about?" asked Kate.
"Lord Effingham to be sure; and—"
"How can you imagine such nonsense, dear Mrs. Storey," cried Kate, "it is too absurd, for—"