"That's judging by results. I look to the motive. I repeat, if I powder and paint, it's not because I'm vain, but because it's my painful duty to give you pleasure."
"And if it doesn't give me pleasure?"
She shrugged her shoulders.
"Call me stupid then—not vain. I ought to have done it better."
"In any case," said Ashe, "it's your duty to please us?"
"Yes—" sighed Kitty. "Worse luck!"
And she sank softly back in her chair, her eyes shining under the stimulus of the laugh that ran through her circle. The Dean joined in it uneasily, conscious, no doubt, of the sharp, crackling movements by which in the distance Lady Grosville was dumbly expressing herself—through the Times. Cliffe looked at the small figure a moment, then seized a chair and sat down in front of her, astride.
"I wonder why you want to please us?" he said, abruptly, his magnificent blue eyes upon her.
"Ah!" said Kitty, throwing up her hands, "if we only knew!"
"You find it in the tragedy of your sex?"