ery sweet voice--the lips were on my ear--whispered
I know not what, but it sounded very like wishing me joy and love, while
others were deafening me about long life and happiness.

I do not remember--I do not want to remember--all the nonsense I talked,
and with a volubility quite new to me; my brain felt on fire with a sort
of wild ecstasy, and as homage and deference met me at every step, my
every wish acceded to, and each fancy that struck me hailed at once as
bright inspiration, no wonder was it if I lost myself in a perfect ocean
of bliss. I told Pauline she should be the queen of the _fete_, and
ordered a splendid wreath of flowers to be brought, which I placed upon
her brow, and saluted her with her title, amidst the cheering shouts of
willing toasters. Except to make a tour of a waltz or a polka with some
one I knew, I would not permit her to dance with any but myself; and
she, I must say, most graciously submitted to the tyranny, and seemed to
delight in the extravagant expressions of my admiration for her.

[Illustration: 526]

If I was madly jealous of her, I felt the most overwhelming delight in
the praises bestowed upon her beauty and her gracefulness. Perhaps the
consciousness that I was a mere boy, and that thus a freedom might be
used towards me that would have been reprehensible with one older,
led her to treat me with a degree of intimacy that was positively
captivating; and before our third waltz was over, I was calling her
Pauline, and she calling me Digby, like old friends.

"Isn't that boy of Norcott's going it to-night?" I heard a man say as I
swung past in a polka, and I turned fiercely to catch the speaker's eye,
and show him I meant to call him to book.

"Eccles, your pupil is a credit to you!" cried another.

"I'm a Dutchman if that fellow does n't rival his father."

"He 'll be far and away beyond him," muttered another; "for he has none
of Norcott's crotchets,--he's a scamp 'ur et simple.'"

"Where are you breaking away from me, Digby?" said Pauline, as I tried
to shake myself free of her.

"I want to follow those men. I have a word to say to them."

"You shall do no such thing, dearest," muttered she. "You have just told
me I am to be your little wife, and I 'm not going to see my husband
rushing into a stupid quarrel."

"And you are mine, then," cried I, "and you will wear this ring as a
betrothal? Come, let me take off your glove."

"That will do, Digby; that's quite enough