Joe and Daisy returned, and there was a pleasant rencontre; then Delia and Ben came up, and they had a merry chat and a promenade.
"I wonder," as the musicians began tuning again, "if you are engaged for all the dances. Could I be allowed one?"
He took up her card.
"I have been dancing so much already; but Mrs. Jasper said I might try the Spanish dance."
"Oh, then try it with me! I am not too old to dance, if I have come to adoring Thackeray. And I am to go away soon."
"To go away—where?" And she glanced up with an interest that gave him a quick sense of pleasure.
"To Hamburg first; then to find some relations."
"In Germany? But you are not a German?" in surprise.
"I ought to be a Dane, if one's birth counts for anything; and if one's ancestors count, then an old Dutch Knickerbocker," he returned, with a soft, amused laugh. "But I believe I cannot boast of any English descent, such as the son of a hundred earls. That doesn't sound as poetic as the daughter of a hundred earls."
"Who was not one to be desired," interposed the young girl.