Page:The Outcry (London, Methuen & Co., 1911).djvu/82

68 the girl returned, "that I do know you better."

"Then isn't that all I want?—unless indeed I ought perhaps to ask rather if it isn't all you do! At any rate," said Lord John, "I may see you again here?"

She waited a moment. "You must have patience with me."

"I am having it. But after your father's appeal."

"Well," she said, "that must come first."

"Then you won't dodge it?"

She looked at him straight. "I don't dodge, Lord John."

He admired the manner of it. "You look awfully handsome as you say so—you see what that does to me." As to attenuate a little the freedom of which he went on: "May I fondly hope that if Lady Imber too should wish to put in another word for me?"

"Will I listen to her?"—it brought Lady Grace straight down. "No, Lord John, let me tell you at once that I'll do nothing of the sort. Kitty's quite another affair, and I never listen to her a bit more than I can help."

Lord John appeared to feel, on this, that