ou call it delightful! I came here as a little
surprise to you; but I daresay you will think me a great bore for taking
you by storm, and interrupting your _tete-a-tete_ with Jem.

KITTY: Oh! far from it! I am only too, too happy you've come!

LADY FLO: Is that the real truth?

KITTY: Indeed, it is!

LADY FLO: I thought I should find you as blooming as a rose in June; but
you are not quite so flourishing as I expected. Those pretty eyes look
as if--as if--well, as if you had a cold in the head!

KITTY: They look as if I had been crying, you mean! And so I have.
(_Bursts into tears afresh, and throws herself into LADY FLO'S arms._)

(_Enter SIR WILLIAM and JEM, the former standing amazed. KITTY, leaving
LADY FLO'S arms, throws herself into those of SIR WILLIAM, with renewed
sobs. SIR WILLIAM turns in surprise to JEM. LADY FLO looks down in
embarrassment._)

JEM: Oh! yes, Kitty! This is all very well. Why not tell them I'm a
monster at once?

KITTY: And so you are!

JEM (_aside_): Have you no sense of decency?

LADY FLO (_aside_): This is truly shocking.

SIR W. (_aside_): Good Heavens!

KITTY: Is it my fault that my uncle and aunt are witnesses of your
ill-temper?

(_Enter PORTER._)

PORTER: Your ladyship's trunks have just arrived from the station.

LADY FLO (_hesitating_): Let them be taken back again.

SIR W.: We had intended staying but an hour or two.

JEM (_to SIR W._): But I beg you to stay.

KITTY (_to LADY FLO_): Never were you so much needed.

JEM (_to PORTER_): Let her ladyship's trunks be taken to the Blue Rooms.

KITTY: Not to the Blue Rooms. They are quite damp. (_To JEM_) I may
speak a word in my own house, I suppose? (_To PORTER_) Let the trunks be
taken to the Turret Room.

JEM: The chimneys smoke there.

KITTY: Excuse me. They do not.

JEM: Excuse _me_. They do.

SIR W.: They smoked once upon a time, perhaps, but may not now.

PORTER: Where may I say the luggage is to be carried?

JEM: Take your orders from your mistress.

KITTY: No! From your master!

JEM (_to KITTY_): Spare me at least before the lady's-maid!

KITTY (_to JEM_): Oh! nobody knows better how you behave than Porter.
Our quarrels are no secret from _her_.

JEM: That must be your fault. How can she know of them but from you?

KITTY: I tell her nothing. But your voice would reach to the ends of the
earth.

JEM: As for yours--why----

KITTY: Grandmamma always said my voice was the most gentle she had