"Oh, no."
"I'll be sure to go into society, then, as long as I can go limp."
He bowed, and, retiring with Dr. Price, walked through the green with him, perusing the ground.
I wore a dark blue silk for the party, with a cinnamon-colored satin stripe through it; a dress that Alice supervised. She fastened a pair of pearl ear-rings in my ears, and told me that I never looked better. It was the first time since grandfather's death that I had worn any dress except a black one. My short sleeves were purled velvet, and a lace tucker was drawn with a blue ribbon across the corsage. As I adjusted my dress, a triumphant sense of beauty possessed me; Cleopatra could not have been more convinced of her charms than I was of mine. "It is a pleasant thing," I thought, "that a woman's mind may come and go by the gate Beautiful."
I went down before Alice, who stayed with the children till she heard the first ring at the door.
"Where is Charles?" I asked, after we had greeted the Bancrofts.
"He will come in time to play, for he likes whist; do you?"
"No."
We did not speak again, but I noticed how gay and agreeable she was through the evening.
Ben Somers came early, suffering from a fit of nonchalance, to the disgust of several young men, standard beaux, who regarded him with an impertinence which delighted him.