"And if you won't dance the Lancers, which are just beginning, will you sit them out with me ?" "Gladly!" and he offered her his arm.

"Shall we go up to the drawing-room?
It is cooler there than here." She assented, and they slowly mounted the staircase together.

Some of the evening's guests lounging about in the hall and loitering near the ballroom door, watched them go, and exchanged significant glances.

One tall woman with black eyes and a viperish mouth, who commanded a certain exclusive "set" by virtue of being the wife of a dissolute Earl whose house was used as a common gambling resort, found out Mrs.Sorrel sitting among a group of female gossips in a corner, and laid a patronising hand upon her shoulder.
"_Do_ tell me!" she softly breathed.

"_Is_ it a case ?" Mrs.Sorrel began to flutter immediately.
"_Dearest_ Lady Larford! What _do_ you mean!" "Surely you know!" And the wide mouth of her ladyship grew still wider, and the black eyes more steely.