said her
brother, as they passed through the hall. "Mr. Beauchamp here, James?"

"Yes, sir; came about a quarter of an hour ago; he has just gone up to
dress."

Blanche was sitting in front of her dressing-table, with her maid
putting the finishing-touches to her toilette, when a slight tap at the
door was followed by the entrance of her mother.

"That will do, Gimp," said Lady Mary. "I will arrange those flowers in
Miss Blanche's hair myself;" and, obedient to the intimation, the
lady's-maid left the room. "I have just looked in to speak to you,
Blanche, about this ball. If the subject is revived at dinner this
evening, you won't want to go to it: you understand?"

"Of course, mamma, I will say so if you wish it; but I should like to
go, all the same."

"Oh, nonsense! An Easter ball at Commonstone would be a shocking,
vulgar, not to say rowdy, affair. Besides, surely you have had plenty
of dancing in London, to say nothing of heaps more in perspective."

"Dancing!" replied the girl, with a shrug of her shoulders. "I don't
call a London ball dancing. One jigs round and round in a place about
ten feet square, but one never gets a really good spin. We have been
at Commonstone balls before. What makes you think this one would be
more uproarious than usual?"

"We have never been to an Easter ball, my dear," replied Lady Mary,
adjusting a piece of fern in her daughter's tresses. "We came down
here for quiet, and if you don't require a rest, I do. You must think
of your poor chaperon a little, Blanche."

"Don't say another word, mamma. You are a dear amiable chaperon, and
have been awfully good about staying a little late at times. I don't
want to drag you over to Commonstone, when your wish is to be left
peacefully at home. We won't do the Easter ball, though it is sad to
think what a capital room they have for it. But come along, there goes
the bell, and I am sure now I look most bewitching."

It was not Lady's Mary's custom to take her daughters into her
confidence, in the first instance, with regard to the matrimonial
designs she had formed for their benefit. All the preliminary
manoeuvres she conducted herself. The idea of young people gravitating
together naturally was a theory she would have received with profound
derision. She looked upon it that all what she would have termed
successful marriages were as much owing to the clever diplomacy of
mothers or chaperons as the victory of a hors