“I fancied I might have had a prior claim.”
“Indeed! Then you should have told me so. How was I to know it?—Well, vicar, I see your young ladies are in great request; how does Miss Godiva happen to be in your company?”
“What can he be driving at?” muttered Clide, as his host turned away to get a partner for Godiva Langrove; “has he been fooling me all this time—is he playing me off against Roxham? And is she—” He walked into the ballroom, and there saw, as we know, Lord Roxham and Franceline very happy in each other’s society.
He went straight to Lady Emily Fitznorman, and asked her for the waltz that was going on. She was fiancée to a friend of his, he knew; so he was safe so far, and she had plenty to say for herself, and he must talk to some one. He was not a man to show the white feather, whatever he might feel. He kept steadily aloof from Franceline after this, and Lord Roxham, taking for granted that he had been mistaken in his first impressions, secured her for three more dances, which was all he dared do in the face of Dullerton.
Franceline was grateful to him. She felt suddenly forsaken in the midst of the gay crowd, as if some protecting presence had been withdrawn. Her father was playing piquet in some distant region where there were card-tables. But even if he had been within reach, there was something stirring in her newly-awakened consciousness that would have prevented her seeking him. Clide should not see that he had grieved her. She could enjoy herself and be merry without him, and she would let him see it!
“Has the honor of taking you in to supper been already secured, mademoiselle?” said Mr. Charlton, making sure at this early stage that it had not, and coming up to claim it with the air of elaborate grace that springs from the habit of easy conquest.
“Yes, it has,” replied Lord Roxham, quickly taking the answer out of Franceline’s mouth. “I was before you in the field, Charlton, I am happy to say.”
“How could you tell such a story?” whispered Franceline, with an attempt to look shocked when Mr. Charlton had gone away.
“I told you everything was considered fair in electioneering,” replied the member of Parliament.
“Then electioneering must be very bad for everybody who has to do with it, if it teaches them to tell stories and call it fair.”