with Prince Stephan?" said Lady Tranmore.

Margaret French nodded. "She vows that she meant no harm, and did no
harm, and that it has been all malice and exaggeration. But one can see
she has been hurt."

"Well, if you ask me," said Lady Tranmore, in a low voice, "I think she
deserved to be."

Their eyes met, the girl's full of a half-smiling, half-soft
consideration. Lady Tranmore, on the other hand, had flushed proudly, as
though the mere mention of the matter to which she had referred had been
galling to her. Kitty, in fact, had just been guilty of an escapade
which had set the town talking, and even found its way here and there in
the newspapers. The heir to a European monarchy had been recently
visiting London. A romantic interest surrounded him; for a lady, not of
a rank sufficiently high to mate with his, had lately drowned herself
for love of him, and the young man's melancholy good looks, together
with the magnificent apathy of his manner, drew after him a chain of
gossip. Kitty failed to meet him in society; certain invitations that
for once she coveted did not arrive; and in a fit of pique she declared
that she would make acquaintance with him in her own way. On a certain
occasion, when the Princeling was at the play, his attention was drawn
to a small and dazzling creature in a box opposite his own. Presently,
however, there was a commotion in this box. The dazzling creature had
fainted; and rumor sent round the name of Lady Kitty Ashe. The Prince
despatched an equerry to make inquiries, and the inquiries were repeated
that evening in Hill Street. Recovery was prompt, and the Prince let it
be known that he wished to meet the lady. Invitations from high quarters
descended upon Kitty; she bore herself with an engaging carelessness,
and the melancholy youth was soon spending far more pains upon her than
he had yet been known to spend upon any other English beauties presented
to him. Ashe and Kitty's friends laughed; the old general in charge of
the Princeling took alarm. And presently Kitty's audacities, alack,
carried away her discretion; she began, moreover, to boast of her ruse.
Whispers crept round; and the general's ears were open. In a few days
Kitty's triumph went the way of all earthly things. At a Court ball, to
which her vanity had looked forward, unwarned, the Prince passed her
with glassy eyes, returning the barest bow to her smiling courtesy. She
betrayed nothing; but somehow the thing got out,