"All the fault of the Grosvilles," said Ashe, after a moment, lighting another cigarette, "in shutting up their great heavy house, and drawing their great heavy curtains on a May night, when all reasonable people want to be out-of-doors. My dear mother, what's the good of paying any attention to what people like Lady Grosville say of people like Kitty? You might as well expect Deborah to hit it off with Ariel!" "William, don't laugh!" said his mother, in distress. "Geoffrey Cliffe is not a man to be trusted. You and I know that of old. He is a boaster, and--" "And a liar!" said Ashe, quietly. "Oh! I know that." "And yet he has this power over women--one ought to look it in the face. William, dearest William!" she leaned over and clasped his hand close in both hers, "do persuade Kitty to go away from London now--at once!" "Kitty won't go," said Ashe, quietly, "I am sorry, dear mother. I hate that you should be worried. But there's the fact. Kitty won't go!" "Then use your authority," said Lady Tranmore. "I have none." "William!" Ashe rose from his seat, and began to walk up and down. His aspect of competence and dignity, as of a man already accustomed to command and destined to a high experience, had never been more marked than at the very moment of this helpless utterance. His mother looked at him with mingled admiration and amazement. Presently he paused beside her. "I should like you to understand me, mother. I cannot fight with Kitty. Before I asked her to marry me, I made up my mind to that. I knew then and I know now that nothing but disaster could come of it. She must be free, and I shall not attempt to coerce her." "Or to protect her!" cried his mother. "As to that, I shall do what I can. But I clearly foresaw when we married that we should scandalize a good many of the weaker brethren." He smiled, but, as it seemed to his mother, with some effort. "William! as a public man--" He interrupted her. "If I can be both Kitty's husband and a public man, well and good. If not, then I shall be--" "Kitty's husband?" cried Lady Tranmore, with an accent of bitterness, almost of sarcasm, of which she instantly repented her. She changed her tone. "It is, of course, Kitty, first and foremost, who is concerned in your public position," she said, more gently. "Dearest William--she is so young still--she probably doesn't quite understand, in spite of her great cleverness. But she _does_ care--she _must_ care--and she ought to know what slight things may sometimes affect a man's prospects and future in this country." Ashe said nothing. He turned on his heel and resumed his pacing. Lady Tranmore looked at him in perplexity. "William, I heard a rumor last night--" He held his cigarette suspended. "Lord Crashaw told me that the resignations would certainly be in the papers this week, and that the ministry would go on--after a rearrangement of posts. Is it true?" Ashe resumed his cigarette.