in enough to appreciate the distinction
of dancing with the belle of the evening. "So sorry. I quite envy the
little vicar boys and girls--upon my honour I do. Very unkind of you to
go just as I came. Never mind. Not far away, is it? We shall see lots
of one another."

At this moment, just as the band was striking up for a quadrille, Jill
came up.

"Have you seen dear Mr Arm-- O Rosalind! how _can_ you dance with that
man?"

Mr Ratman laughed.

"Very well, missy. I'll pay you out. You shall dance with me, see if
you don't, before the evening is out."

Before which awful threat Jill fled headlong to seek the tutor.

"Fact is," pursued Mr Ratman, reverting to his previous topic, "ever
since I saw you, Miss Rosalind, I said to myself--Robert Ratman, you
have found the right article at last. You don't suppose I'd come all
the way here from India, do you, if there weren't attractions?"

She kept a rigid silence, and went through the steps of the quadrille
without so much as a look at the talker, Ratman was sober enough to be
annoyed at this chilly disdain.

"Don't you know it's rude not to speak when you're spoken to, Miss
Rosalind?" said he. "If you choose to be friends with me we shall get
on very well, but you mustn't be rude."

She turned her head away.

"You aren't deaf, are you?" said he, becoming still more nettled. "I
suppose if it was the heir of Maxfield that was talking to you you'd
hear, wouldn't you? You'd be all smiles and nods to the owner of ten
thousand a year, eh? Do you suppose we can't see through your little
game, you artful little schemer? Now, will you speak or not?"

Her cheeks gave the only indication that she had heard this last
polished speech as she gathered up her dress and swept out of the
quadrille.

"Wait," said he, losing his temper, "the dance is not over."

She stepped quickly to a chair, and sat there at bay.

"Come back," said he, following her, "or I will make you. I won't be
insulted like this before the whole room. Come back; do you hear?"

And he snatched her hand.

Rosalind looked up, and as she did so she caught a distant vision of an
eye-glass dropping from a gentleman's eye to the length of its cord. A
moment after, Mr Ratman felt a hand close like a vice on his collar and
himself almost lifted from the room. It was all done so quickly that
the quadrille party were only just becoming aware that a couple had
dropped out; and the non-dancers we