Matty, Alice and Sophy Bell forgave him for his abrupt departure earlier in the evening from the charms of their society, when he helped them each twice to lobster salad.
Captain Bertram was not at all averse to the charms of a small flirtation.

He was forced to remain for a few days in the remote little world-forgotten town of Northbury, and it occurred to him as he helped the Bells to lobster salad, and filled up Miss Matty's glass more than once with red currant wine, that Beatrice could solace him a good deal during his exile from a gayer life.

He was absolutely certain at the present moment that the best way to restore himself to her good graces was once again to endure the intellectual strain of the Bells' society.
Accordingly when supper was over, and people with one consent, and all, as it were, moved by a sudden impulse, joined first in a country dance, then formed into sets for quadrilles, and finally waltzed away to the old-fashioned sound of Mrs.Meadowsweet's piano, played with vigor by the good lady herself, Captain Bertram, with a beseeching and deprecatory glance at Beatrice, who took care not to see it, led out Miss Matty Bell as his partner.
How much that young lady giggled! How badly she danced--with what rapture she threw up her round eyes at her partner's dark face, this chronicle need not record; so _naive_ was she, into such ecstasies did every word spoken by the captain throw her, that he quite feared for the result.
"It is awful when a girl falls in love in five minutes!" he mentally soliloquized.

"I wonder if I have satisfied Miss Meadowsweet now?
I do honestly think I have done my duty by Miss Matty Bell." So he conveyed the gushing young person back to her sisters, and sought for Beatrice who was once more frank and friendly, but gave him excellent reasons for not dancing with him.
At this moment Catherine came up and touched her brother.

Her cheeks had a bright color in them, she looked animated and happy.
"Loftus, it is close on twelve o'clock.