"Then get your sleep before, for it is business of moment touching which we need your aid and counsel."
Before Huntoon could answer, another guest claimed his attention, and he followed to the door to help the ladies, who had donned their hoods and safeguards, to mount their horses or embark in the boats.
As they rode or sailed away into the gray dawn, Peggy, wrapped in her red cloak, stood with Romney watching them from the porch.
"It has been such a beautiful ball!" she sighed.
"You think so?"
"Of course I do; but then, you see, I never saw a real, big ball before. Do you think they are all like that?"
"To girls like you, yes, and I suppose to men like me."
"But there are so few men like you."
Romney's eyes looked a question.
"So persistent and so jealous and so—dear—"