Mrs. Davenant murmured something about the time she would come for her, and then with a timid look from one to the other was gone.
“And now,” said Lady Bell, “let me look at you,” as if she had not been doing so ever since she entered the room. “My dear, my dear, you are——” she stopped short. “No, I’ll not be the first to teach you vanity. But tell me, do you ever look in your glass, Miss Rolfe—Miss Rolfe, I don’t like that name, I mean between you and me. My name is Bell, and yours is——”
“Mine is Una.”
“Una! That is delightful! And have you your lion? Where is he?”
Una had never read the story of “Una and the Lion,” and looked calmly puzzled.
“Well, if you have not one already, you soon will have. You don’t understand me. I am glad of that. But will you come now? This is a very, very quiet little party, but you may be amused. And I will keep you by my side all the evening. Come,” and she drew Una’s arm through her own white one and led her through the corridor into the ball-room.
It was not a large room. Lady Bell detested huge and crowded assemblies too much to permit them at her own house, but it was, as a ball-room, perfect. There was light, and just enough light, to show the tasteful magnificence of the decorations, and nothing of that fearful glare from innumerable lights, and their reflections in huge mirrors, which make most ball-rooms so trying and unbearable. The band had just commenced as they entered, and the whole scene, the beautiful room with its soft draperies of Persian damask, the Venetian mirrors, the rich dresses of the ladies, and the soul-moving strains of the best band in London, for the moment overawed and startled the girl fresh from the primeval forest.
For a moment her eyes dilated almost with fear, and she unconsciously drew back, but Lady Bell, with a gentle pressure of the arm, drew her forward, and skillfully avoiding the dancers, took her to the further end of the room, where, in a recess lined with ferns and tropical plants, were arranged some seats so placed as to be almost hidden from the room, while they allowed the sitter a full view of it.
Lady Bell drew a fauteuil still further into the recess, and playfully forced Una into it.
“There, my wild bird, is your cage. You can see all the world without being seen, and here you and I will take a peep at it. Now, don’t you want to know all their names and all about them?”