carriage. Go along now, and `Good-night,' for
I shall be in bed when you come back. I'll hear all your adventures in
the morning," and she waved the girl away in the imperious fashion which
no one dare resist.

Hilary was annoyed, but she soon forgot the ugly slippers in the
fascination of a drive through the brightly-lighted streets, and when
the carriage drew up beneath an awning, and she had a peep at a
beautiful hall, decorated with palms and flowering plants, and saw the
crowd flocking up the staircase, her breath came fast with excitement.
Her father led her into the house and disappeared through a doorway on
the left, while she herself was shown into a room on the right, wherein
a throng of fashionable ladies were divesting themselves of their wraps,
and giving finishing touches to their toilets before the mirrors. Those
who were nearest to Hilary turned curious glances at her as she took off
her shawls, and the girl felt a sudden and painful consciousness of
insignificant youth. They were so very grand, these fine ladies. They
wore such masses of diamonds, and such marvellous frocks, and mantles,
and wrappings, that she was over-awed, and hurried out of the room as
quickly as possible, without daring to step forward to a mirror. Such a
crowd of guests were making their way up the staircase, that Hilary and
her father could only move forward a step at the time, but after they
had shaken hands with a stout lady and a thin gentleman at the head of
the stairs, there was a sudden thinning off, for a suite of reception
rooms opened out of the hall, and the guests floated away in different
directions.

Mr Bertrand led the way into the nearer of the rooms, and no sooner had
he appeared in the doorway, than there came a simultaneous exclamation
of delight from a group of gentlemen who stood in the centre of the
floor, and he was seized by the arm, patted on the shoulder, and
surrounded by a bevy of admiring friends. Poor Hilary stood in the
background, abashed and deserted. Her father had forgotten all about
her existence. The group of friends were gradually drawing him further
and further away. Not a soul did she know among all the brilliant
throng. Several fashionably dressed ladies put up their eye-glasses to
stare at her as she stood, a solitary figure at the end of the room,
then turned to whisper to each other, while the youngest and liveliest
of the party put her fan up to her face and tittered audibl