thought. Poor Ruyven! Must he so soon close the
gate of Eden behind him?--leaving forever his immortal boyhood sleeping
amid the never-fading flowers.

It was a fascinating and alarming spectacle to see Sir Lupus walking a
minuet with Lady Schuyler, and I marvelled that the gold buttons on his
waistcoat did not fly off in volleys when he strove to bend what once,
perhaps, had been his waist.

Ceremony dictated what we had both forgotten, and General Schuyler led
out Dorothy, who, scarlet in her distress, looked appealingly at me to
see that I understood. And I smiled back to see her sweet face brighten
with gratitude and confidence and a promise to make up to me what the
stern rule of hospitality had deprived us of.

So it was that I had her for the Sir Roger de Coverley, and after that
for a Delaware reel, which all danced with a delightful abandon, even
Miss Haldimand unbending like a goddess surprised to find a pleasure in
our mortal capers. And it was a pretty sight to see the ladies pass,
gliding daintily under the arch of glittering swords, led by Lady
Schuyler and Dorothy in laughing files, while the fiddle-bows whirred,
and the music of bassoon and hautboys blended and ended in a final
mellow crash. Then breathless voices rose, and skirts swished and French
heels tapped the polished floor and solemn subalterns stalked about
seeking ices and lost buckles and mislaid fans; and a faint voice said,
"Oh!" when a jewelled garter was found, and a very red subaltern said,
"Honi soit!" and everybody laughed.

Presently I missed the General, and, a moment later, Dorothy. As I stood
in the hallway, seeking for her, came Cecile, crying out that they were
to have pictures and charades, and that General Schuyler, who was to be
a judge, awaited me in the gun-room.

The door of the gun-room was closed. I tapped and entered.

The General sat at the mahogany table, leaning back in his arm-chair;
opposite sat Dorothy, bare elbows on the table, fingers clasped.
Standing by the General, arms folded, Jack Mount loomed a colossal
figure in his beaded buckskins.

[Illustration: "JACK MOUNT LOOMED A COLOSSAL FIGURE IN HIS BEADED
BUCKSKINS".]

"Ah, Mr. Ormond!" said the General, as I closed the door quietly behind
me; "pray be seated. They are to have pictures and charades, you know; I
shall not keep Miss Dorothy and yourself very long."

I seated myself beside Dorothy, exchanging a smile with Mount.

"Now," said the General