tially, and how she, from her seat, looked up at him
and laughed merrily, as only Susanna could laugh. He took her hand and
made her try the step on the floor in front of their seats, and this
seemed to be even more amusing.

Young Martinez evidently engrossed her, and I feared she perhaps thought
our old relations were only childish fancies, which as a grown-up woman
she now wished forgotten. She might consider that after our agreement
about the two trial years, everything between us was to be at an end, so
that, as grown-up people we could talk and laugh over the whole affair
without misunderstanding each other.

My blood boiled, and I felt that I must revenge myself. Before I had
quite considered how, I began, with a sudden inspiration, to converse
eagerly with Merchant R.'s pretty daughter, who happened to be standing
close to me, so that it might appear as if I were paying court to her.

When presently Susanna passed us in the new figure, she looked in a
wondering, questioning way at me. The next time she passed, she
inadvertently dropped her handkerchief just at the place where I stood.
I picked it up, went up the room, and stiffly handed it to the
minister's wife, who--in consequence either of my behaviour at the
dinner-table, or of something else--received me with marked reserve and
coldness. I bowed as coldly to her, and then returned to my old place,
where I resumed the interrupted lively conversation with Miss R.

Shortly after, Susanna again came past, and this time looked at me with
a serious, but uncertain expression, as if she could not quite make up
her mind what to think; after that she purposely dropped her eyes every
time she passed me.

I discovered to my satisfaction that Martinez really danced clumsily.
While I talked with forced gaiety to my pretty companion, I was secretly
tempted, all unnoticed, to put out my foot, a little ill-naturedly, so
that he should trip over it. And I do not quite know how it happened,
but the next time Martinez passed, he fell full length on the floor, and
must have hurt himself considerably; in falling, however, he was gallant
enough to let go the support he might have had in his partner, so that
Susanna only half fell.

He rose, and looked angrily at me, the innocent cause of the mishap, who
was apparently too much engrossed in my neighbour to have even noticed
what was going on. The look he received in return for his, however,
revealed to him, though involuntar