She became aware that Warner, compelled to silence,
was looking straight at her, and she automatically beat her hands
together. He smiled slightly and gave his head an almost imperceptible
shake. Then some one in the audience called for the popular poem in
which he had so vigorously denounced Macaulay's unjust estimate of
Byron a few years since, holding up to scorn the brain of the mere man
of letters who dared to criticise or even to attempt to understand the
abnormal brain and temperament of a great poet. He recited it from
memory and then retired followed by a tumult of approval that he well
knew he never should evoke again.

CHAPTER XIV

When Anne descended the company was streaming toward the music
room, whence issued the rich summons of a full military band. She
manoeuvred so well that Lord Hunsdon led out Miss Ogilvy for the
first dance, and sat down beside Mrs. Nunn, hoping that Warner would
summon courage to take the empty chair beside her. Her pulses beat
high with excitement and delight in his triumph, and she longed to
show him recklessly for once the admiration and the faith she had
taken care to conceal under a correctly flattering manner. But Warner
stood talking with a group of men, and even could he have ignored a
sudden imperious beckoning of Lady Hunsdon's fan he would have been
too late. With one of those concerted impulses to which men no less
than women are subject, the young bloods of Bath House, the moment
they saw Anne Percy radiant in colour, with an even deeper blush and
brighter eyes than usual, determined that she and she alone should be
the belle of the evening. She had hardly seated herself when she was
surrounded, she was besieged for dances; and in spite of her protests
that she had never danced save with her governesses, she found herself
whirling about the room in the arm of Mr. Abergenny, and followed by
many an angry eye. Abergenny might be untitled and less of a "catch"
than Lord Hunsdon, but he had far more dash, manner, and address; he
possessed a fine property, if somewhat impaired by high living, and
was a man of note and fashion in London. His word alone had stamped
more than one ambitious beauty for good or ill, and this was not the
first time that he had intimated his entire approval of Miss Percy.
Anne guessed that his intentions were never serious, but he had amused
her more than the others, and since she must know the world, doubtless
she should be grateful for