"Plagued," said Kitty, "how plagued? I'm so sorry. How was I to know you wanted to be rid of the trouble of me and my fortune? You never grumbled before."
"Oh, your fortune! I tell you I've wished a thousand times that every investment of yours went to smash, and you lost every penny of it! So there! I'll just leave you for awhile to make up your mind whether you're going to tell me who the man is, or not!" He flung out of the room in a heat, and banged the door.
Kitty laughed a little low laugh of extreme relief; but her eyes were all shining; and she said with a little shiver, "He loves me—he does—he does—he does!!!"
Presently she rose, with a very resolute face, took a hat and coat from a peg in the hall, went out of the back-door, and down to the stables. She went into a coach-house, switched on the electric light above her motor-car, and considered it thoughtfully. It was a big car, with something of the air of a trap, built to hold two. Then she went to the box of tools used for its machinery, and selecting a fine file stepped into the car, and set deliberately to work to file through the handle of the lever which started and stopped it. Her Australian life had made her a capital work-woman, and she did it neatly; but it was a long piece of work, and now and again she stopped to test it. She wished to file through it, so that she could break it with a jerk. All the while she worked she whistled softly. Something about her task seemed to amuse her.
At last she completed it to her liking, and then sat back in the car, weighing, with a face that grew very serious, the risks of the dangerous game she had resolved to play. After a long while she rose and said between her teeth, "I don't care if we are smashed, Jack and I, together."
She came back to the house, went to him in the billiard-room, and said, "We're going to dine at the Hall to-night. Aunt will go in the brougham, and you and I in the motor-car."
"I hate the beastly thing. I know there will be a smash some day," he said. His temper was still ruffled.
"Very well," said Kitty, gently. "You go with aunt, and I will go in the car by myself."
"I'll be shot if I do!" said Jack; then he said, "I suppose Malmesford will be there?"