Page:The Tragic Muse (London & New York, Macmillan & Co., 1890), Volume 3.djvu/102

94 comically (the source was so different), the very vibrations he had noted the day before in Lady Agnes's voice.

"He's going to glory and he'll forget all about us—forget that he has ever known such people. So we shall never see him again, and it's better so. Good-bye, good-bye," Miriam repeated; "the brougham must be there, but I won't take you. I want to talk to mother about you, and we shall say things not fit for you to hear. Oh, I'll let you know what we lose—don't be afraid," she added to Mrs. Booth. "He's the rising star of diplomacy."

"I knew it from the first—I know how things turn out for such people as you!" cried the old woman, gazing fondly at Sherringham. "But you don't mean to say you're not coming to-morrow night?"

"Don't—don't; it's great folly," Miriam interposed; "and it's quite needless, since you saw me to-day."

Sherringham stood looking from the mother to the daughter, the former of whom broke out to the latter: "Oh, you dear rogue, to say one has seen you yet! You know how you'll come up to it; you'll be transcendent."

"Yes, I shall be there—certainly," said Sherringham, at the door, to Mrs. Booth.

"Oh, you dreadful goose!" Miriam called after him. But he went out without looking round at her.