"You don't care to go to the ball room yet, Alice; we have so much to say," said Col. Haughton, bending down to the sweet, calm face looking up to his so earnestly, and marking the deepening lines of care and unrest.
"No, Eric; sit down beside me, you look weary; I have seen so little of you of late."
"And the guests come and go or talk in groups of this night of sensation; or in these luxurious soft-lighted salons, give themselves up to the delicious intoxication of some loved presence. How many a passionate heart throb, how many sweet pains are engendered in one's heart, how many sighs given and returned, what tender passages on such nights! And what would a ball be without this undercurrent of what we call flirtation; in reality, this yearning for the one in the multitude.
"Why, Chancer, what's come to you, man? You remind one of a spirit in Elysian fields in search of its mate," said Stuart, as he strolled about with Lady Everly on his arm.
"Pretty scene, Chancer," said Lord Rivers, lazily, and stationing himself in the curtained entrance to look out for some one to kill time with until his hostess is his own again. "Fine show of arm and neck there; pretty woman that; ah, there's an ankle; trust them, they all know their good points. Fine pair of eyes; there's a neck for you; but what's the matter with you, man, now I come to look at you you wear a lost look; is it Fate, Fortune, or one of the Graces?"
"The three in one, Rivers," he said with a half-laugh.
"Did you say you had lost some one, Capt. Chancer? Perhaps I can tell you; I know every nook and corner in the hall," said the Meltonbury, insinuatingly, coming from the other side of the curtains, where she had ensconced herself to watch for the return of Madame on hearing Lady Everly's speech in the stage whisper.
"How angry the dear thing will be," she thought importantly, "when I tell her." And now in her character of social astronomer she levels her glass at Chancer.
"Oh, thank you, I shall be so obliged," he said eagerly; "I am in search of Miss Vernon; our waltz is on."
"So! so! no wonder you are eager," but Chancer is out of hearing, so swiftly has he followed Mrs. Meltonbury to the boudoir of Madame.