among them; and every point in the dance where she
escaped without even a touch upon her modest bearing, as if
truly no one dared take liberties with her, made him half wild
to get her out of it altogether.

Thus thinking and watching, Mr. Rollo saw two strange things
take place. First came this:

A new figure was called, and the partners were to be sorted by
means of long streamers of different-coloured ribbands. Wych
Hazel, having already received hers, a green, stood drawing it
through her fingers and chatting with Josephine Powder, whose
ribband was blue. Suddenly Miss Kennedy caught away the blue
ribband and began to compare its length with that of her own;
measuring and re-measuring, tangling the long ends up
together; until as the gentlemen came up to match colours and
claim their partners, Wych Hazel hurriedly put the green
streamer in Josephine's hand, and went off with Captain
Lancaster. The green and blue were such convertible colours in
the gaslight that no one took any notice. But Rollo saw that
Wych Hazel drew a long breath as she moved away, and looked
down, and did not say much for several minutes. That figure
passed off with nothing unusual.

Then followed another, during which the couples were arranged
in a sort of haphazard way; the ladies and gentlemen drawing
up in two long opposite lines, each then to take his _vis-a-
vis_. But where a lady was in great demand, the gentleman _not_
strictly opposite would sometimes press down and forward,
trying to catch her eye, and prove himself her partner by mere
right of possession. The line of men stood with their backs
towards Mr. Rollo, so that he did not at first see who it was
that started forward so eagerly, taking a fair diagonal
towards Miss Kennedy. But he saw her change colour, with a
sort of frightened look, and then--most unlike her usual shy
bearing,--saw her turn the other way, and herself take a
diagonal towards what proved in this instance to be Mr. May.
With a great flush of crimson at first, and then growing and
remaining very pale, and dancing very languidly. And then, at
the foot of the room, her eyes met those of her young
guardian,--which about finished up the evening. For twice that
night Wych Hazel had been within a hair's breadth of having
her hand taken by the very man from whose presence she had
escaped that night in July. To get rid of him she had put
herself off on somebody else, and Mr. Rollo had seen it all!

'Put Molly