CHAPTER V.
THE BALLROOM.
WHILE the consultation at Doctor Lagarde's was still fresh in the memory of the persons present at it, Chance or Destiny, occupied in sowing the seeds for the harvest of the future, discovered as one of its fit instruments a retired military officer named Major Mulvany.
The Major was a smart little man, who persisted in setting up the appearance of youth as a means of hiding the reality of fifty.

Being still a bachelor, and being always ready to make himself agreeable, he was generally popular in the society of women.

In the ballroom he was a really welcome addition to the company.

The German waltz had then been imported into England little more than three years since.

The outcry raised against the dance, by persons ski lled in the discovery of latent impropriety, had not yet lost its influence in certain quarters.