us tone. Now, however, when the sound of a waltz,
played softly on stringed instruments, fell on my ears, my nervousness
departed as quickly as it had come. The big mahogany doors swung open
before us, and as I passed with George, into the brilliantly lighted
hall, where the perfume of roses filled the air, I managed to move, if
not with grace, at least with the necessary dignity of an invited guest.
The lamps, placed here and there amid feathery palm branches, glowed
under pink shades like enormous roses in full bloom, and up and down the
wide staircase, carpeted in white, a number of pretty girls tripped
under trailing garlands of Southern smilax. As we entered the door on
the right, I saw Miss Mitty and Miss Matoaca, standing very erect in
their black brocades and old lace, with outstretched hands and
constantly smiling lips.

George presented me, with the slightly formal manner which seemed
appropriate to the occasion. I had held the little hand of each lady for
a minute in my own, and had looked once into each pair of brightly
shining eyes, when my glance, dropping from theirs, flew straight as a
bird to Sally Mickleborough, who stood talking animatedly to an elderly
gentleman with grey side-whiskers and a pleasant laugh. She was dressed
all in white, and her pale brown hair, which I had last seen flying like
the wing of a bird, was now braided and wound in a wreath about her
head. As the elderly gentleman bowed and passed on, she lifted her eyes,
and her starry, expectant gaze rested full on my face.

Between us there stretched an expanse of polished floor, in which the
pink-shaded lamps and the nodding roses were mirrored as in a pool.
Around us there was the music of stringed instruments, playing a waltz
softly; the sound, too, of many voices, now laughing, now whispering; of
Miss Mitty's repeated "It was so good of you to come"; of Miss Matoaca's
gently murmured "We are _so_ glad to have you with us"; of Dr.
Theophilus's "You grow younger every day, ladies. Will you dance
to-night?"; of General Bolingbroke's "I never missed an opportunity of
coming to you in my life, ma'am"; of a confused chorus of girlish
murmurs, of youthful merriment.

For one delirious instant it seemed to me that if I stepped on the
shining floor, I should go down as on a frozen pool. Then her look
summoned me, and as I drew nearer she held out her hand and stood
waiting. There was a white rose in her wreath of plaits, and when I bent
t