“We all bow to him,” had said the good-natured donna; “and he is badly spoiled, of course. Don’t let your feelings get involved, like that poor, ugly Miss Beaumoris. Thorndyke is a mystery—and, I’m afraid, volage!”
Kathleen had laughed! She had no fear for herself.
“And you are to keep on with this kind of thing?” now said Colin, discontentedly.
“Of course!” exclaimed she. “Two ladies have already booked my humble services; although one of them did say, in excuse for herself, that anything Mrs. Beaumoris started is sure to run on for a while.”
“I shall never hear you perform,” he went on. “So I’ll try to forget it. If I had my way, I’d carry you off to a cloud-castle and keep you shut in from all these insolent people.”
“But you can’t, Master Colin, so be satisfied,” said she, coloring a little at the fervor he could not exclude from his tones. “And as to hearing me, you shall have an opportunity without delay. Let us see if you are so eager to accept it.”
“I will go wherever you bid me,” he replied, more and more under the charm of her close vicinity.
“Promise.”
“I promise.”