"I wish I hadn't seen her," she said, in a miserable tone, the tears flooding once more into her eyes.
Ashe looked at her with great kindness, but without speaking. The moment of sharp pain passed, and she moved on languidly beside him. But there was an infection in his strong, handsome presence, and her smiles soon came back. By the time they neared the house, indeed, she seemed to be in wild spirits again.
Did he know, she asked him, that three more guests were coming that afternoon—Mr. Darrell, Mr. Louis Harman, and—Mr. Geoffrey Cliffe? She laid an emphasis on the last name, which made Ashe say, carelessly:
"You want to meet him so much?"
"Of course. Doesn't all the world?"
Ashe replied that he could only answer for himself, and as far as he was concerned he could do very well without Cliffe's company at all times.
Whereupon Kitty protested with fire that other men were jealous of such a famous person because women liked him—because—
"Because the man's a coxcomb and the women spoil him?"
"A coxcomb!"
Kitty was up in arms.