rooms alone. In a
moment or two she saw a man she knew, and calling him to her by a look,
took his arm. She chatted pleasantly to this young fellow, as proud as
need be of being selected to conduct the beauty whither she would, and
after some searching she discovered Mr. Bellingham, still asleep behind
the swinging door.

"Thanks," she said to her escort. "I have promised to take Mr.
Bellingham home." And she dropped the young man's arm with a nod and a
smile.

"But he is asleep," objected the gallant.

"I will wake him," she answered. And laying her hand on Mr.
Bellingham's, she leaned down and spoke his name. Instantly he awoke, as
fresh as from a night's rest, for he had the Napoleonic faculty for
catching naps.

"Winter awaking to greet the spring," he said without the slightest
hesitation, as though he had prepared the little speech in his sleep.
"Forgive me," he said, "it is a habit of mine learned long ago." He
presented his arm and asked her what was her pleasure.

"I am going home," she said, "and if you like I will drop you at your
door."

Mr. Bellingham glanced at a great enamelled clock, half-hidden among
flowers and fans, as they passed, and he noticed that they had not been
in the house much more than three quarters of an hour. But he wisely
said nothing, and waited patiently while Margaret was wrapped in her
cloaks, and till the butler had told the footman, and the footman had
told the other footman, and the other footman had told the page, and the
page had told the policeman to call the Countess Margaret's carriage.
After which the carriage appeared, and they drove away.

Uncle Horace chatted pleasantly about the party, admitting that he had
dreamed more than he had seen of it. But Margaret said little, for the
reaction was coming after the excitement she had passed through. Only
when they reached Mr. Bellingham's rooms, and he was about to leave her,
she held his hand a moment and looked earnestly in his face.

"Mr. Bellingham," she said suddenly, "I trust you will always be my
friend--will you not?" The old gentleman paused in his descent from the
carriage, and took the hand she offered.

"Indeed I will, my dear child," he said very seriously. Then he bent
his knee to the sill of the door and kissed her fingers, and was gone.
No one ever resented Mr. Bellingham's familiarity, for it was rare and
honest of its kind. Besides, he was old enough to be her grandfather, in
spite of his pretty spe