“That you will not leave Epsom without my knowledge. Let me speak with you once more after I have read it, if it is only to weep with you and to say farewell.”
“I promise.”
“And—oh, my lord! if I may say it—since your lordship may not marry me, then I, for your sake, will never marry any other man.”
“Kitty!”
“That is my promise, my lord. And perhaps—sometimes—you will give a thought to your poor—fond Kitty.”
He caught me in his arms and showered kisses upon my cheeks and lips, calling me his angel and a thousand other names, until I gently pushed him from me and begged him to take me back to the company. He knelt at my feet and took my hand in his, holding it in silence. I knew that he was praying for the blessing of Heaven upon my unworthy head.
Then he led me back to the circle of lights, when the first person we met was Miss Peggy Baker.
“Why, here,” she cried, looking sharply from one to the other, “are my lord and Miss Pleydell. Strange that the two people we have most missed should be found at the same time—and together, which is stranger still.”
Nancy left her swains and ran to greet me.
“My dear,” she whispered, “you have been crying. Is all well?”