She looked charming, and seemed very happy.

She danced with a magic lightness and gracefulness, and she showed an endurance which had elicited applause and acknowledgments from her partners.

People were delighted with her, and she hardly allowed herself time to breathe, for as the privileged daughter of the house, she wandered from one partner to another, trying hard to offend as few of her admirers as possible by a refusal.

But Wilhelm had no cause for jealousy, as her sparkling eyes continually sought his, and as often as she danced near him she gave him an electrifying glance and a sweet smile, telling him that he might now hold his head high like a conqueror, or humble himself with languishing sentiment, that for her there was only one man in the room, one man in all the mirrors, the handsome youth in the window recess between the red silk curtains.

In the short pauses she came over to him and spoke a word or two, always the same sort of thing: "Ah! how So-and-so worries me.