be certain. He himself had been the
best dancer in his regiment, and this, his first waltz with the girl he
adored, sent the blood spinning through his veins.

"Aren't we in step rather--nicely?" she whispered, trying to speak
casually, but failing utterly; for the joy that throbbed in her heart
made it impossible for her to keep her voice steady. "Oh, Drake, I--I
was afraid that I might not be able to dance, it is so long--ever so
long--since----Why, this is my first real ball, and I am dancing with
you! And how well you waltz! But you have danced so often--this is not
your first ball!"

He glanced at her with a pang of uneasiness, but her eyes shone up at
him innocent of any other meaning than the simplest one, innocent of any
doubt of him, any question of his past.

"He would be a rank duffer who couldn't dance with you, Nell," he said.

Her hand tightened on his with the faintest pressure, and she closed her
eyes with a happy sigh.

"If it could only go on forever!" was her thought; and she prayed that
no other man might want her to dance, for a long time.

She would have liked to sit out the dances she could not have with
Drake, to sit and watch him. And she would not be jealous. Why should
she be? Was he not her very own, her sweetheart, the man who loved her?

The waltz came to an end all too soon, and as Drake led her to a seat,
young Maltby approached her with two young fellows. She was the
prettiest girl in the room, though she was the simplest dressed, and the
men were anxious to secure her.

Drake hastily scribbled his initials on several lines of her program,
then had to resign her to her next partner, and, in discharge of his
duty, seek a partner for himself.

Lady Maltby introduced him to a daughter of a local squire, a fresh
young girl, with all a country girl's frankness.

"What a pretty girl that was with whom you were dancing!" she said, as
they started. "She is really lovely!"

"And yet they say that women never admire each other," he remarked.

"Do you mean that?" she asked, looking up at him with her frank, blue
eyes. "What nonsense! I love to see a pretty woman; and I quite looked
forward to coming here to-night, because we are to have a famous London
beauty."

"Oh! Which one?" asked Drake absently; his eyes were following Nell, who
happened to look across at him at the moment, and who smiled the smile
which a woman only accords her lover.

"I don't remember her name," said the gi