I set fire to my hair in the effort to decipher the well-filled ball card, but we put it out, and the candle also, and chatted in bed.
“You must have danced every dance,” I said, admiringly.
“We sat out one or two that are down,” said Eleanor; “and No. 21 was supper, but I danced all the rest.”
“There was one man you danced several times with,” I said, “but I couldn’t make out his name. It looks as if it began with a G.”
“Oh, it’s not his real name,” said Eleanor. “It’s the one he says you used to call him by. One reason why I liked him, Margery dear, was because he said he had been so fond of you. You were such a dear little thing, he said. I told him the locket and chain were in good preservation.”
“Was it Mr. George?” I cried, with so much energy that Aunt Theresa (who slept next door) heard us, and knocked on the wall to bid us go to sleep.
“We’re just going to,” Eleanor shouted, and added in lower tones, to me, “Yes, it was Captain Abercrombie. Colonel Buller introduced him to me. He is so nice, and so delightfully fond of dogs and of you, Margery.”
“Shall I see him?” I asked. “I should like to see him again. He was very good to me when I was little.”
“Oh yes,” said Eleanor. “It was curious his being in the neighbourhood; for the 202nd is in Dublin, you know. And, Margery, he says he has an uncle in Yorkshire. He——”
“Girls! girls!” cried Aunt Theresa; and we went to sleep.