if
unceremonious hand, he ensconced himself beside
her right willingly and devoted his best energies
to her amusement, and that of her small court;
lifted the burden of their entertainment from her
shoulders with ready tact, and waked the boys up
vigorously, causing them to enjoy themselves, and
forget that they were _young_; and lonesome, and
foolish. Kind, thoughtful Berkeley! No wonder
the silly little heart beside him fluttered joyously,
and the shy blue eyes were raised to his grave
handsome face with full measure of content.

And so the hours sped, golden-footed,
silver-footed; and the pipers piped and the men and
maidens danced and the elders gossiped, drank
champagne, and reveled in the fleshpots, yawning
surreptitiously behind fans and handkerchiefs as
the evening waned.

Pocahontas, roused from a dream of enjoyment
by Roy's mandate, sped lightly up stairs to the
dressing-room, and arrayed herself hastily in her
mufflings. At the stairway Thorne joined her, and
as her foot touched the lowest step he took her
unresisting hand and raised it to his lips murmuring
softly; "A happy New Year to you--my darling! my queen!"

Then good-night to host and hostess, a swift,
impulsive kiss to Blanche, and Berkeley put her
into the carriage; Roy tightened the reins and
they drove rapidly away in the chill gray of the
January dawn. The ball was over; the New Year begun.

Thorne, standing by the steps watching the
receding carriage, noticed the bouquet of
half-faded jasmin blossoms, which had slipped
unheeded from the girl's hand, and lay neglected
and forgotten on the frozen ground. The impulse
came to him to raise them tenderly because her
hands had touched them, and then the thought
of who had given them arose and struck down the
impulse. He set his heel upon them.

For him also, the New Year had begun.

CHAPTER XI.

The day after a ball is always a languid, wearisome period, to be dozed
or yawned through, on bed or sofa, in a state of total collapse. Life
for the time is disorganized, disenchanted; there is a feeling of
flatness everywhere, the rooms lately brilliant and joyous with light
and color; fade out in the chilling glare of day, and appear like
"banquet halls deserted," which each individual "treads alone,"
surrounded by an atmosphere of fatigue, _ennui_ and crossness. In the
country the flatness falls with full perfection, for there is seldom
the anticipation of more excitement to