eral more, which Miss Nan
found intensely interesting--so absorbing, indeed, that she met the
eyes of her companion without any abashment, and frequently laughed in
her low, quiet way. These two seemed very friendly, and heedless of
what was going on around them; and might, in fact, have continued
talking for a quite indefinite time had not, all of a sudden, Charley
Stratherne come up, followed by a tall man with a long yellow beard;
and before Nan knew what had happened, she was being led away to pierce
the great throng that had now grown very dense indeed, a waltze having
already begun. As for the young lieutenant, he somewhat abruptly
declined his friend's offer to find him a partner.

'You have plenty of dancing men; there won't be room to move shortly.'

Charley Stratherne was too busy to stay and ask why his friend refused
to dance, and would not even remain in the ball-room; the next second
he was off. Then the young lieutenant managed to make his way through
the crowd to the door; and as there were still plenty of people
arriving, he succeeded in passing his hostess unobserved and making his
way downstairs.

He entered the brilliantly-decorated but quite empty supper-room, and
sat down. One of the servants happened to come in and stared at him.

'Look here,' said he, 'could you get me an evening paper?'

'Oh yes, sir,' said the man: and he went off and speedily returned with
the newspaper.

Frank King sat down, turned his back to the table, and was soon all by
himself in this long chamber, apparently deeply absorbed in the
evening's news. What he really was doing, however, was listening to
the music overhead.

Meanwhile, Nan got through the waltz somehow. The crush was so great
that her partner, who was not much of a pilot, generally succeeded in
steering her into some little side bay, where they came slowly to rest
by mere friction, or else landed her right in the middle of the room,
where there was a throng of unskilful dancers become stationary in
spite of themselves. At last she was surrendered again to her mother's
care.

'Well, Nan,' said Lady Beresford, with an amused look, 'how did you get
on?'

'You mean how much did I get off?' said she.

'I believe I'm all in rags. And that elephant of a man bumped me
against every person in the room.'

Here the Admiral came along--bustling as was his wont, talking to
everybody at the same time, and invariably putting his hand on the
shoulder of