"How do you feel to-night, darling?" asked her mother.
"Oh! very comfortable," said Harriet, leaning her head on her mother's lap, as Lady Conway took the arm-chair beside her; "quite well as long as I have nothing to do that I don't like."
"How I wish that you could go to the ball to-morrow, dearest," said her mother.
"Thank you," said Harriet, "but that is one of the things I don't like; besides, after being on horseback all the morning, I shall be glad to go to bed as soon as I have seen you all off in your finery."
"Such a pity, so well as you dance the Mazourka," said Lucy Conway, "for one meets such nice people at this ball. I really think if you took proper care—"
"Oh! we will run no risks," said Lady Conway, anxiously, "you coughed at dinner, I observed."
"It was the pepper, mamma mia," said Harriet; "but I have no intention of going to the ball. Bessy! send me over that pretty little thing by your side. I have a mind to talk to her."
"What say you," asked Elizabeth smiling, "will you venture?"
Margaret complied with a little timidity in her manner.