"Shall I cut some ham for you, Katherine?" he asked.
"Thank you. Yes, please, a little," she replied. Her lips quivered; she wondered if she could swallow anything.
The meal was about half through when a servant entered, bringing a note. The note was addressed to "Miss Katherine Hepworth." Kitty tore it open. Its contents caused her face at first to turn rosy red, and then very white.
"Say there is no answer," she said to the servant, who left the room.
"What is it, dear--anything that troubles you?" asked Mrs. Keith.
"Only a letter from Madame Dupuys," said Kitty, speaking as carelessly as she could. "She wants to see me. I hope nothing is wrong with my dress."
"You extravagant girl," said Keith, "are you getting a new dress for Monday evening?"
"Yes--a new dress for you, Gavon," replied the girl, and she looked sadly in his face.
There was something in her expression which gave him a pang of remorse.
"I like you in anything you wear, Kitty," he said, with a sort of assumed carelessness. And then, as he went out of the room he laid his hand for an instant on her shoulder. Light as the touch was, it thrilled her. The clouds vanished from her speaking face like magic, and she turned brightly to Mrs. Keith.
"When must you go to Madame Dupuys'?" asked that lady.
"Early--almost immediately. I will take a hansom and drive over."
"You need not do that; I am going out, and can drop you at madame's, and call for you afterwards."
"Oh, thank you, auntie; that will be lovely."
"I am going out immediately," said Mrs. Keith.
"Then I will run upstairs and put on my hat and jacket," said the girl.
She danced up to her room. She still felt that light, very light, caressing touch of Keith's on her shoulder. It tingled through her being. She dressed herself quickly, and ran downstairs. Soon the elderly lady and the young were driving away together in the direction of Madame Dupuys'. Mrs. Keith's face looked troubled. Kitty glanced at it, and then looked away.
"She is thinking about Gavon, and no wonder," thought the girl.
An impulse of affection, a fellow-feeling in a mutual sorrow, caused her to place her little hand inside Mrs. Keith's. Suddenly the young pair of eyes and the old met.
"_How_ are we to bear it?" said Kitty to his mother.