The nasal drag she gave to the words was partly natural, partly insolent. Madame d'Estrées bit her lip.
"Oui?" said Kitty, indifferently. "Je n'en avais jamais entendu parler."
Her brilliant eyes studied the woman before her. "She has some hold on maman," she said to herself, in disgust. "She knows of something shady that maman has done." Then another thought stung her; and with the most indifferent bow, triumphing in the evident offence that she was giving, she turned to Lord Magellan.
"You'd like to see the Palazzo?"
Warington at once offered himself as a guide.
But Kitty declared she knew the way, would just show Lord Magellan the piano nobile, dismiss him at the grand staircase, and return. Lord Magellan made his farewells.
As Kitty passed through the door of the salon, while the young man held back the velvet portière which hung over it, she was aware that Mademoiselle Ricci was watching her. The Marseillaise was leaning heavily on a fauteuil, supported by a hand behind her. A slow, disdainful smile played about her lips, some evil threatening thought expressed itself through every feature of her rounded, coarsened beauty. Kitty's sharp look met hers, and the curtain dropped.
"Don't, please, let that woman take you anywhere—to see anything!" said Kitty, with energy, to her companion, as they walked through the rooms of the mezzanino.
Lord Magellan laughed. "What's the matter with her?"