“Oh! nonsense. The obligation is mutual. Her kindness will be quite repaid, by having a new face in her splendid rooms. And as for repaying her in kind, as you call it, that is quite out of the question. There are not a dozen people in town who do the thing on the scale the Groves attempt. And besides, Rosie would be disappointed.”
Graeme did not believe that it was the best thing that could happen to Rosie, to be gratified in this matter, but she did not say so.
“After all,” thought she, “I daresay there is no harm in it. I shall not spoil the pleasure of the rest, by not seeming to enjoy it. But I don’t like Mrs Grove.”
The last words were emphatically repeated. She did not like her. She did not wish to see her frequently, or to know her intimately. She wished she had neither called, nor invited them. She wished she had followed her first impulse, which had been to refuse at once without referring to her brothers. Now, however, she must go with a good grace.
So they all went, and enjoyed it very much, one and all, as they found on comparing notes around the bright little fire which Nelly had kept burning, against their return.
“Only,” said Rosie, with a little shamefacedness, “I am not sure that Graeme liked me to dance quite so much.”
Graeme was not sure either, but she did not think this the best time to speak about it. So she did not.
“But how you ever learned to dance is a mystery to me,” said Arthur, “and Harry too, I saw him carrying off Miss Elphinstone, with all the coolness imaginable. Really, the young people of the present day amaze me.”
“Oh! one can dance without learning,” said Rose, laughing. “The music inspires it.”
“And I have danced many a time before,” said Harry. “You are not sorry you went, are you Graeme?”