stranger with whom
Klesmer had been in animated talk on the archery ground. "He is a
friend of yours, I think."

"No, no; an amateur I have seen in town; Lush, a Mr. Lush--too fond of
Meyerbeer and Scribe--too fond of the mechanical-dramatic."

"Thanks. I wanted to know whether you thought his face and form
required that his words should be among the meanings of noble music?"
Klesmer was conquered, and flashed at her a delightful smile which made
them quite friendly until she begged to be deposited by the side of her
mamma.

Three minutes afterward her preparations for Grandcourt's indifference
were all canceled. Turning her head after some remark to her mother,
she found that he had made his way up to her.

"May I ask if you are tired of dancing, Miss Harleth?" he began,
looking down with his former unperturbed expression.

"Not in the least."

"Will you do me the honor--the next--or another quadrille?"

"I should have been very happy," said Gwendolen looking at her card,
"but I am engaged for the next to Mr. Clintock--and indeed I perceive
that I am doomed for every quadrille; I have not one to dispose of."
She was not sorry to punish Mr. Grandcourt's tardiness, yet at the same
time she would have liked to dance with him. She gave him a charming
smile as she looked up to deliver her answer, and he stood still
looking down at her with no smile at all.

"I am unfortunate in being too late," he said, after a moment's pause.

"It seemed to me that you did not care for dancing," said Gwendolen. "I
thought it might be one of the things you had left off."

"Yes, but I have not begun to dance with you," said Grandcourt. Always
there was the same pause before he took up his cue. "You make dancing a
new thing, as you make archery."

"Is novelty always agreeable?"

"No, no--not always."

"Then I don't know whether to feel flattered or not. When you had once
danced with me there would be no more novelty in it."

"On the contrary, there would probably be much more."

"That is deep. I don't understand."

"It is difficult to make Miss Harleth understand her power?" Here
Grandcourt had turned to Mrs. Davilow, who, smiling gently at her
daughter, said--

"I think she does not generally strike people as slow to understand."

"Mamma," said Gwendolen, in a deprecating tone, "I am adorably stupid,
and want everything explained to me--when the meaning is pleasant."

"If you are stupid, I admit that stupidity is ador