He held out his arm, and to the mortification of her circle of courtiers, he led her away.
"Confound that fellow Ambrose!" muttered Colonel Floyd. "Why couldn't she ask me to take her into the conservatory?"
"Or me?" muttered two or three others, as they sauntered away ill-temperedly.
Austin Ambrose led her into the conservatory and placed her in a seat, then he broke off a palm-leaf and fanned her patiently, as if it were his sole mission on earth.
"Well?" she said, and it was the first word she had addressed to him since her greeting.
He smiled, a confident smile.
"Meaning our friend Blair?"
"Yes, yes," she said, impatiently. "Where is he? What is he doing? He was invited to-night. I came expecting him to be here."
He smiled again.
"Don't be impatient. At present our friend Blair shuns the revel and the dance——"