He bowed, offering his arm, and none of them was too vain to envy that bow and gesture.
For a moment he remained waiting. Miss Carewe rose slowly, and, directly facing him, said in composed and even voice: “You force me to beg you never to address me again.”
She placed her hand on the General's arm, turning her back squarely upon Tom.
In addition to those who heard, many persons in that part of the room saw the affront and paused in arrested attitudes; others, observing these, turned inquiringly, so that sudden silence fell, broken only by the voice of Miss Betty as she moved away, talking cheerily to the General. Tom was left standing alone in the broken semicircle.
All the eyes swept from her to him and back; then everyone began to talk hastily about nothing. The young man's humiliation was public.
He went to the door under cover of the movement of the various couples to find places in the quadrille, yet every sidelong glance in the room still rested upon him, and he knew it. He remained in the ball, alone, through that dance, and at its conclusion, walked slowly through the rooms, speaking to people, here and there, as though nothing had happened, but when the music sounded again, he went to the dressing-room, found his hat and cloak, and left the house. For a while he stood on the opposite side of the street, watching the lighted windows, and twice he caught sight of the lilac and white brocade, the dark hair, and the wreath of marguerites. Then, with a hot pain in his breast, and the step of a Grenadier, he marched down the street.
In the carriage Mrs. Tanberry took Betty's hand in hers. “I'll do as you wish, child,” she said, “and never speak to you of him again as long as I live, except this once. I think it was best for his own sake as well as yours, but—”
“He needed a lesson,” interrupted Miss Betty, wearily. She had danced long and hard, and she was very tired.
Mrs. Tanberry's staccato laugh came out irrepressibly. “All the vagabonds do, Princess!” she cried. “And I think they are getting it.”
“No, no, I don't mean—”