'Well, the next possibly, I hope?'
'I never do that,' said the apathetic beauty, serenely.
Stanley looked as if he did not quite understand, and there was a little silence.
'I mean, I never engage myself beyond one dance. I hope you do not think it rude—but I never do.'
'Miss Brandon can make what laws she pleases for all here, and for some of us everywhere,' he replied, with a mortified smile and a bow.
At that moment Sir Harry Bracton arrived to claim her, and Miss Kybes—elderly and sentimental, and in no great request—timidly said, in a gobbling, confidential whisper—
'What a handsome couple they do make! Does not it quite realise your conception, Captain Lake, of young Lochinvar, you know, and his fair Helen—
So stately his form and so lovely her face—
You remember—
'That never a hall such a galliard did grace.