ou know what he used to tell her?" said Ashe, with a laugh. But
his forehead had reddened.

"One hears--and one guesses--from the letters that have been published.
Oh, I understand quite well! You can't trust me!"

Ashe turned aside and began to gather up his papers.

"Of course," said Kitty, a little hoarsely, "I know it's my own fault,
because you used to tell me much more. I suppose it was the way I
behaved to Lord Parham?"

She looked at him rather tremulously. It was the first time since her
illness began that she had referred to the incidents at Haggart.

"Look here!" said Ashe, in a tone of decision; "I shall <i>really</i> give up
talking politics to you if it only reminds you of disagreeable things."

She took no notice.

"Is Lord Parham behaving well to you--now--William?"

Ashe colored hotly. As a matter of fact, in his own opinion, Lord Parham
was behaving vilely. A measure of first-rate importance for which he was
responsible was already in danger of being practically shelved, simply,
as it seemed to him, from a lack of elementary trustworthiness in Lord
Parham. But as to this he had naturally kept his own counsel with Kitty.

"He is not the most agreeable of customers," he said, gayly. "But I
shall get through. Pegging away does it."

"And then to see how our papers flatter him!" cried Kitty. "How little
people know, who think they know! It would be amusing to show the world
the real Lord Parham."

She looked at her husband with an expression that struck him
disagreeably. He threw away his cigarette, and his face changed.

"What we have to do, my dear Kitty, is simply to hold our tongues."

Kitty sat up in some excitement.

"That man never hears the truth!"

Ashe shrugged his shoulders. It seemed to him incredible that she should
pursue this particular topic, after the incidents at Haggart.

"That's not the purpose for which Prime Ministers exist. Anyway, <i>we</i>
can't tell it him."

Undaunted, however, by his tone, and with what seemed to him
extraordinary excitability of manner, Kitty reminded him of an incident
in the life of a bygone administration, when the near relative of an
English statesman, staying at the time in the statesman's house, had
sent a communication to one of the quarterlies attacking his policy and
belittling his character, by means of information obtained in the
intimacy of a country-house party.

"One of the most treacherous things ever done!" said Ashe, indign