ood as from the same house, is too marked. You ought not to go."

Perhaps Mr. Traffick had on some former occasion felt some little
interference with his freedom of action. Perhaps he liked the
acquaintance of the Marchesa. Perhaps he liked Ayala Dormer. Be that
as it might, he would not yield. "Dear Augusta, it is right that I
should go there, if it be only for half-an-hour." This he said in a
tone of voice with which Augusta was already acquainted, which she
did not love, and which, when she heard it, would make her think of
her L120,000. When he had spoken he left her, and she began to think
of her L120,000.

They both went, Ayala and Mr. Traffick,--and Mr. Traffick, instead
of staying half-an-hour, brought Ayala back at three o'clock in the
morning. Though Mr. Traffick was nearly as old as Uncle Tringle, yet
he could dance. Ayala had been astonished to find how well he could
dance, and thought that she might please her cousin Augusta by
praising the juvenility of her lover at luncheon the next day. She
had not appeared at breakfast, but had been full of the ball at
lunch. "Oh, dear, yes, I dare say there were two hundred people
there."

"That is what she calls a little dance," said Augusta, with scorn.

"I suppose that is the Italian way of talking about it," said Ayala.

"Italian way! I hate Italian ways."

"Mr. Traffick liked it very much. I'm sure he'll tell you so. I had
no idea he would care to dance."

Augusta only shook herself and turned up her nose. Lady Tringle
thought it necessary to say something in defence of her daughter's
choice. "Why should not Mr. Traffick dance like any other gentleman?"

"Oh, I don't know. I thought that a man who makes so many speeches
in Parliament would think of something else. I was very glad he did,
for he danced three times with me. He can waltz as lightly as--" As
though he were young, she was going to say, but then she stopped
herself.

"He is the best dancer I ever danced with," said Augusta.

"But you almost never do dance," said Ayala.

"I suppose I may know about it as well as another," said Augusta,
angrily.

The next day was the last of Mr. Traffick's sojourn in Rome, and on
that day he and Augusta so quarrelled that, for a certain number of
hours, it was almost supposed in the family that the match would be
broken off. On the afternoon of the day after the dance Mr. Traffick
was walking with Ayala on the Pincian, while Augusta was absolutely
remainin