he helped me on with
my jacket and arranged the heron's feathers in my velvet cap. I was
half faltering in my resolution, when I bethought me of that charge of
feebleness of character Nixon had reported to me, and I determined, come
what might, I would show that I had a will and could follow it. In less
than five minutes after, I was standing under the trees in the garden,
shaking hands with scores of people I never saw before, and receiving
the very politest of compliments and good wishes from very pretty lips,
aided by very expressive eyes.

"Here's Mademoiselle Pauline Delorme refuses to dance with me," cried
Eccles, "since she has seen the head of the house. Digby, let me present
you." And with this he led me up to a very beautiful girl, who, though
only the daughter of a celebrated restaurateur of Brussels, might
have been a princess, so far as look and breeding and elegance were
concerned.

"This is to be the correct thing," cried Cleremont "We open with a
quadrille; take your partners, gentlemen, and to your places."

Nothing could be more perfectly proper and decorous than this dance.
It is possible, perhaps, that we exceeded a little on the score of
reverential observances: we bowed and courtesied at every imaginable
opportunity, and with an air of homage that smacked of a court; and if
we did raise our eyes to each other, as we recovered from the obeisance,
it was with a look of the softest and most subdued deference. I really
began to think that the only hoydenish people I had ever seen
were ladies and gentlemen. As for Eccles, he wore an air of almost
reverential gravity, and Hotham was sternly composed. At last, however,
we came to the finish, and Cleremont, clapping his hands thrice, called
out "_grand rond_," and, taking his partner's arm within his own, led
off at a galop; the music striking up one of Strauss's wildest, quickest
strains. Away he went down an alley, and we all after him, stamping and
laughing like mad. The sudden revulsion from the quiet of the moment
before was electric; no longer arm-in-arm, but with arms close clasped
around the waist, away we went over the smooth turf with a wild delight
to which the music imparted a thrilling ecstasy. Now through the dense
shade we broke into a blaze of light, where a great buffet stood;
and round this we all swarmed at once, and glasses were filled with
champagne, and vivas shouted again and again, and I heard that my health
was toasted, and a v