an was the son of a certain
Lady Magellan, an intimate friend of Lady Tranmore's--one of the noblest
women of her generation, pure, high-minded, spiritual, to whom neither
an ugly word nor thought was possible. It annoyed him that either he or
Kitty should be introducing <i>her</i> son to Madame d'Estrees.

It was really tiresome of Kitty! Rich young men with characters yet
indeterminate were not to be lightly brought in contact with Madame
d'Estrees. Kitty could not be ignorant of it--poor child! It had been
one of her reckless strokes, and Ashe was conscious of a sharp
annoyance.

However, he said nothing. He followed his companions from church to
church, till pictures became an abomination to him. Then he pleaded
letters, and went to the club.

"Will you call on maman to-morrow?" said Kitty, as he turned away,
looking at him a little askance.

She knew that he had disapproved of her invitation to Lord Magellan. Why
had she given it? She didn't know. There seemed to be a kind of revived
mischief and fever in the blood, driving her to these foolish and
ill-considered things.

Ashe met her question with a shake of the head and the remark, in a
decided tone, that he should be too busy.

Privately he thought it a piece of impertinence that Madame d'Estrees
should expect either Kitty or himself to appear in her drawing-room at
all. That this implied a complete transformation of his earlier attitude
he was well aware; he accepted it with a curious philosophy. When he and
Kitty first met he had never troubled his head about such things. If a
woman amused or interested him in society, so long as his taste was
satisfied she might have as much or as little character as she pleased.
It stirred his mocking sense of English hypocrisy that the point should
be even raised. But now--how can any individual, he asked himself, with
political work to do, affect to despise the opinions and prejudices of
society? A politician with great reforms to put through will make no
friction round him that he can avoid--unless he is a fool. It weighed
sorely, therefore, on his present mind that Madame d'Estrees was in
Venice--that she was a person of blemished repute--that he must be and
was ashamed of her. It would have been altogether out of consonance with
his character to put any obstacle in the way of Kitty's seeing her
mother. But he chafed as he had never yet chafed under the humiliation
of his relationship to the notorious Margaret Fit