e ball-room of Ditton-in-the-Dale.

But now the reception was finished; the royal party moved into the
ball-room, from which they shortly afterward retired, leaving the
company at liberty from the restraint which their presence had imposed
upon them. The concourse broke up into little groups; the stately
minuet was performed, and livelier dances followed it; and gentlemen
sighed tender sighs, and looked unutterable things; and ladies
listened to soft nonsense, and smiled gentle approbation; and melting
glances were exchanged, and warm hands were pressed warmly; and fans
were flirted angrily, and flippant jokes were interchanged--for human
nature, whether in the seventeeth or the nineteenth century, whether
arrayed in brocade, or simply dressed in broadcloth, is human nature
still; and, perhaps, not one feeling, or one passion, that actuated
man's or woman's heart five hundred years ago, but dwells within it
now, and shall dwell unchanged forever.

It needs not to say that, on such an occasion, in their own father's
mansion, and at the celebration of one sister's birth-day, Blanche and
Agnes, had their attractions been much smaller, their pretensions much
more lowly than they really were, would have received boundless
attention. But being as they were infinitely the finest girls in the
room, and being, moreover, new _debutantes_ on the stage of fashion,
there was no limit to the admiration, to the _furor_ which they
excited among the wits and lady-killers of the day.

Many an antiquated Miss, proud of past conquests, and unable yet to
believe that her career of triumph was, indeed, ended, would turn up
an envious nose, and utter a sharp sneer at the forwardness and hoyden
mirth of that pert Mistress Agnes, or at the coldness and inanimate
smile of the fair heiress; but the sneer, even were it the sneer of a
duke's or a minister's daughter, fell harmless, or yet worse, drew
forth a prompt defence of the unjustly assailed beauty.

No greater proof could be adduced, indeed, of the amazing success of
the sister beauties, than the unanimous decision of every lady in the
room numbering less than forty years, that they were by no means
uncommon; were pretty country hoppets, who, as soon as the novelty of
their first appearance should have worn out, would cease to be
admired, and sink back into their proper sphere of insignificance.

So thought not the gentle cavaliers; and there were many present
there, well qualified to j