ght
you knew I never meant to dance again. Cannot you open the dance without
me? I, who have no spirits!"

The rest was lost as she sailed away on the arm of a gentleman in a
turquoise-coloured coat, and waistcoat embroidered with gillyflowers;
leaving the Lady Arabella on the hands of her son, who, neither as host
nor gentleman, could escape, until the young lady had found some other
companion. He stiffly and wearily addressed to her the inquiry how she
liked London.

"I should like it monstrously if I were not moped up in school," she
answered. "So you have come back. How did you hurt your arm?" she said,
in the most provincial of dialects.

"In the fire, madam."

"What? In snatching your innamorata from the flames?"

"Not precisely," he said.

"Come, now, tell me; did she set the room a-fire?" demanded the young
lady. "Oh, you need not think to deceive me. My brother Mar's coachman
told my mamma's woman all about it, and how she was locked up and ran
away; but they have her fast enough now, after all her tricks!"

"Who have? For pity's sake tell me, Lady Belle!"

Loving to tease, she exclaimed: "There, now, what a work to make about a
white-faced little rustic!"

"Your ladyship has not seen her."

"Have I not, though? I don't admire your taste."

"Is she in Queen's Square?"

"Do not you wish me to tell you where you can find your old faded doll,
with a waist just like a wasp, and an old blue sacque--not a bit of
powder in her hair?"

"Lady Belle, if you would have me for ever beholden to you---"

"The cap fits," she cried, clapping her hands. "Not a word to say for
her! I would not have such a beau for the world."

"When I have found her it will be time to defend her beauty! If your
ladyship would only tell me where she is, you know not what gratitude I
should feel!"

"I dare say, but that's my secret. My mamma and yours would be ready to
kill me with rage if they knew I had let out even so much."

"They would forgive you. Come, Lady Belle, think of her brave old
father, and give some clue to finding her. Where is she?"

"Ah! where you will never get at her!"

"Is she at Queen's Square?"

"What would you do if you thought she was? Get a constable and come and
search? Oh, what a rage Madam would be in! Goodness me, what sport!"
and she fell back in a violent giggling fit; but the two matrons were so
delighted to see the young people talking to one another, that there
was no attempt to repres