The stout cleric grinned like a faun, and stroked chin. "Ha, ha! how her cheeks glow! Does her little heart beat so wildly?" He seemed inclined to prove the truth of his assertion.
Judith turned deathly pale, and stepped back.
"What do you mean?" Lady Anna whispered to her worthy admirer, who had evidently just come from the buffet. She glanced around, and saw they were forming a quadrille. Count Baranowski was fulfilling the disagreeable duty of dancing with the voluminous wife of the thin burgomaster.
"Who knows," said Lady Anna, smiling, "what honor would have been yours if you had come earlier; now you must content yourself with young Wolczinski. Wladko!"
The tall, clumsy fellow stumbled up hastily. "You will dance this quadrille with Judith."
He hesitated. "I am--I have--" he stammered.
"What? already engaged?"
"No, but--"
"What then? too tired?" Lady Anna's eyes had not the pleasantest expression in the world just then. "Well, will you? Allons!"
He shrugged his shoulders, and offered his arm to the girl. Judith followed him with bowed head, as if crushed by the humiliation. "Have I experienced these things before, and now for the first time notice them?"