and indignation, thanking
Heaven that in their day things had not quite come to such a pass as
that. Colonel Burr himself, my dears, never dared to touch more than
the tips of his partner's fingers in the contra-dance.

Hope Wayne had not met Abel Newt since they had parted after the runaway
at Delafield, except in his mother's conservatory, and when she was
stepping from the carriage. In the mean while she had been learning
every thing at once.

As her eyes fell upon him now she remembered that day upon the lawn
at Pinewood, when he stood suddenly beside her, casting a shadow upon
the page she was reading. The handsome boy had grown into this proud,
gallant, gay young man, surrounded by that social prestige which gives
graceful confidence to the bearing of any man. He knew that Hope had
heard of his social success; but he could not justly estimate its effect
upon her.

Of all those who stood by her Arthur Merlin was the only one who knew
that she had ever known Abel, and Arthur only inferred it from Abel's
resemblance to the sketch of Manfred, which had evidently deeply affected
Hope. Lawrence Newt, who knew Delafield, had wondered if Abel and Hope
had ever met. Perhaps he had a little fear of their meeting, knowing
Abel to be audacious and brilliant, and Hope to be romantic. Perhaps
the anxiety with which he now looked upon the waltz arose from the
apprehension that Hope could not help, at least, fancying such a handsome
fellow. And then--what?

Amy Waring certainly did not know, although Lawrence Newt's eyes seemed
to ask hers the question.

Hope heard the music, and her heart beat time. As she saw Abel
and remembered the days that were no more, for a moment her cheek
flushed--not tumultuously, but gently--and Lawrence Newt and the painter
remarked it. The emotion passed, almost imperceptibly, and her eyes
followed the dancers calmly, with only a little ache in the heart--with
only a vague feeling that she had lived a long, long time.

Abel Newt had not lost Hope Wayne from his attention for a single moment
during the evening; and before the interest in the dance was palled,
before people had begun to buzz again and turn away, while Mrs. Van Kraut
and he were still the spectacle upon which all eyes were directed, he
suddenly whirled his partner toward the spot where Hope Wayne and her
friends were standing, and stopped.

It was no more necessary for Mrs. Van Kraut to fan herself than if
she had been a marbl