t,
my child. Command me in anything else, but this I cannot do."

"Oh, I know, she made you promise, the mean, jealous little thing!"

"Hush," he commands. "She asked no favors and I made no promises. She
would not care if I danced every set."

"That is just it!" cries Laura, angrily. "She doesn't care, she doesn't
know----"

"She is my wife!" He walks away, so indignant the first moment that he
all but resolves to return to Violet, then his duty as host presents
itself. He and the professor and a few others keep outside of the magic
circle, but no one would suspect from his demeanor that he had been
ruffled for an instant. There is enough enjoyment in the rambles about
the lawn and smoking on the balcony. It is the perfection of an early
autumn night; in fact, for two or three days it has been unusually
warm.

Gertrude looks quite well for her. Madame has added a few incomparable
toilet touches. Floyd is attentive to her, and Prof. Freilgrath takes
her to supper, promenades with her, and is quite delightful for an old
bookworm. Mr. Latimer talks to her and finds her a great improvement on
Marcia, but the German keeps thinking over her poor little story. If
there _was_ something for her to do! and he racks his brain. There are
no crowds of nephews and nieces, there is no house to keep, there is no
gardening, and he remembers his own busy countrywomen.

A little whisper floats about in the air that young Mrs. Grandon is not
_quite_--but no one finishes the sentence that Laura so points with a
shrug. It seems a pity that a man of his position and attainments
should stumble upon such a _mesalliance_. The sprained ankle is all
very well, but the feeling is that some lack in gift or grace or
education is quite as potent as any physical mishap in keeping her away
to-night. Gertrude, out of pure good-nature, praises her, but Gertrude
is a little _passe_ and rather out of society. The professor speaks
admiringly, but he is Mr. Grandon's _confrere_, and a scholar is not a
very good judge of a young girl's capacity to fill such a place in the
world as Mrs. Floyd Grandon's _ought_ to be. But all this creates in
his favor a romantic sympathy, and this evening men and women alike
have found him charming.

CHAPTER XVII.

Of a truth there are many unexpected things in a long life.--ARISTOPHANES.

"With whom did you dance?" Violet asks, her face one lovely glow of
eager interest; jealousy and she are unknown at this