Augustus was overcome with pride, and relinquished me with the best grace.
Now it was really bliss, dancing with this man; we swam along, swift and smoothly. I could no longer see the walls; a maze of lights was all my vision grasped—I felt bewildered—happy. We stopped a moment and he bent down and smiled at me.
"You look as if you liked dancing," he said. "Poor Lady Tilchester is being mauled by that bear in your place."
I laughed. "I love dancing."
"I seldom do this sort of thing," he continued, "but you are a beautiful mover," and we began again.
When it was over we went and sat down in the very alcove of my first dance with Augustus. I had no uneasiness this time!
I can't say what there was about my partner—a whimsical humor, a slight mocking sound in his voice, which pleased me; he took nothing seriously; everything he said was as light as a thistle-down; he reminded me of the wit of grandmamma and the Marquis; we got on beautifully.
"I seem to have seen you before," he said, at last. "Have I met you in Paris? or am I only dreaming? because I know you so well in the galleries at Versailles—you stepped down from those frames just to honor us to-night, did you not?—and you will go back at cock-crow!"
"If I only could!"
He asked me if I was staying at Brackney or Henchhurst, and when I said no, that I lived only a few miles off, he seemed so surprised.