to speak against it, and Miss Farleigh and Jane Roscoe,
who were intimate friends, played a duet together very nicely, to which
the rest danced.

And now it was that Mary Roscoe first felt the annoyance she had
incurred by her kindness to Reuben, for the child did not wish to leave
her, and seeing all were dancing, or jumping to the music as he thought,
he believed he could do the same, and clinging to her she found that to
appease him she must take him for her partner, and thus this really
good-natured girl was unable to dance with any pleasure to herself, as
the little one was unable to make his way alone. However, Mary was
truly kind-hearted, and not one cloud was on her fair brow when the
dance was finished, and she told her little partner to sit down amidst
the piled up chairs at one end of the room. But as nurse had said Reuben
was a weary little fellow, and Mary little knew the truth, if she
thought she was so easily to get rid of him, for the child was half
alarmed at the numbers of strange faces thronging around him; he was not
well, too, with the many sweet things and fruits he had eaten, and now
it was approaching his usual bed-time, and though he had had a sleep,
yet he had been roused from it suddenly and improperly, fed with sweet
cake since, and any experienced person present might know that shortly
the child would get so excited in the scene before him, it would be no
easy matter to soothe or calm him.

Now it happened that Marten, feeling exceedingly obliged to Mary for
her kindness to his brother, and equally disliking her sister, and Miss
Farleigh and some of the other young ladies, was very anxious to dance
with Mary, to thank her for her kindness to Reuben, but he little
thought that by doing so, the child finding both his friends together
must insist upon being with them, and the second set of quadrilles was
danced by poor Mary as the first had been, the little fellow clinging to
her, for both Marten and Mary were afraid of a burst of tears if they
opposed the child in this matter. Marten, however, spoke somewhat
sharply to him, saying he was teasing Miss Mary, and if they allowed him
to dance this time, he must promise to sit still afterwards, and not be
troublesome again. Reuben knew that he must obey his brother, so when
that dance was finished he went and sat himself down, as directed,
though his young heart was very sad, as he longed to be jumping about
with the other children. Mary was now a