“Why,” continued the man of stars, “he is now standing at the head of the first quadrille with Lady Julia L. Don’t look for a moment, or they will see that we are speaking of them.”
“I beg your pardon, sir,” interrupted the Colonel, “that is Lord Fitz-Ullin!—if you mean the gentleman who is dancing with Lady Julia L.”
“Are you personally acquainted with Lord Fitz-Ullin?” asked the Admiral, for such was the rank of the starred speaker.
“No, sir, but I saw him enter the room, and heard him announced as Lord Fitz-Ullin.”
“Then, sir, give me leave to say, that Captain Montgomery served with me when he was a lieutenant; and to repeat that he now stands at the head of the room with Lady Julia L.”
“The gentleman at the head of the room, dancing with Lady Julia L.,” said a consequential looking elderly man in black, pressing forward through the crowd, and nodding to Lady D., “is Lord Fitz-Ullin”——
“Sir?” said the Admiral, with a look of defiance.
“Yes, sir,” said the gentleman in black, smiling in the angry face of his opponent; “I had this very day the honour of dining with his Lordship at his own house, in company with the Dowager Lady Fitz-Ullin, Lady Oswald, an aunt of his Lordship, and the very beautiful young lady, whose affair has, unfortunately, been of late the subject of so much discussion.”
“Where you may have dined, sir, or with whom, are not points for me to dispute; but,” persisted our naval hero, “the gentleman dancing with Lady Julia L. is Captain Montgomery!”