curls of her hair as she reached toward him.

"Good night," he said, extending his hand again.

"Good night," she said, putting hers into it.

"You have your people with you?"

"Yes."

"It is better then I should not come down?"

"Much better," she answered, after a second; and then, turning to him:
"You are coming to the Duchess of Gordon's?"

"I had intended to remain away till I saw you. What do you think I
shall do now?" his grace asked.

"How should I know, my lord duke?" Nancy inquired, with a smile.

"What do you think I am going to do now?" he repeated with insistence.

"I think you will come to the Gordons'," Nancy answered in a low voice.

"I may kiss your hand?" the duke asked; and, as he did so, the act
having in it more of a caress than a salutation, "Believe me," he said,
"I could not stay away."

* * * * *

After Nancy and Dandy had left us, Carmichael and I sat smoking, and by
reason of the talk falling along some interesting lines we arrived at
the Gordons' long past the time set for our party to meet. Nearing the
house we heard the music of the fiddles filling the air with glee and
sadness, and saw the caddies darting hither and thither, the link-boys
with their torches, and the flare of lights on the dazzling toilets of
the ladies descending from their chairs and coaches. My own position in
Edinburgh society was stated to me quite by accident, as I entered, by
a group of young dandies at the ballroom door, who made way for me with
a pronounced salute and whispered:

"'Tis her father."

Jane Gordon welcomed me with a gay and genuine friendship, and as Sandy
and I made our salutations to her I saw Nancy at some little distance
from us, literally surrounded by fatuous cipher-faced youths, who stood
in some awe before her misty beauty and reputed power. There was pride
in me that the girl was mine, a pride which Sandy Carmichael shared
with me, and as Hugh Pitcairn crossed the long room to salute her
gravely but with marked respect, I saw that there was at least one
emotion which they held in common.

Standing by the great window soon after my arrival, a bit removed from
a group of talking persons to whom I was giving but scant attention, I
became conscious that some one was addressing me, and turned to find
the Duke of Borthwicke, his hand laid lightly on my shoulder, his
countenance of baffling serenity, and his voice mellow and of a
concilia