h
will beat me. I care not for that, but you--Oh, you have gone far
away,--as far as Fair View, as far as the mountains! I am speaking to a
stranger"--

In the dance their raised hands met again. "You see me, you speak to me at
last," he said ardently. "That other, that cold brother of the snows, that
paladin and dream knight that you yourself made and dubbed him me,--he has
gone, Audrey; nay, he never was! But I myself, I am not abhorrent to you?"

"Oh," she answered, "it is all dark! I cannot see--I cannot understand"--

The time allotted to minuets having elapsed, the musicians after a short
pause began to play an ancient, lively air, and a number of ladies and
gentlemen, young, gayly dressed, and light of heart as of heels, engaged
in a country dance. When they were joined by Mr. Marmaduke Haward and his
shameless companion, there arose a great rustling and whispering. A young
girl in green taffeta was dancing alone, wreathing in and out between the
silken, gleaming couples, coquetting with the men by means of fan and
eyes, but taking hands and moving a step or two with each sister of the
dance. When she approached Audrey, the latter smiled and extended her
hand, because that was the way the lady nearest her had done. But the girl
in green stared coldly, put her hand behind her, and, with the very
faintest salute to Mr. Marmaduke Haward, danced on her way. For one moment
the smile died on Audrey's lips; then it came resolutely back, and she
held her head high.

The men, forming in two rows, drew their rapiers with a flourish, and,
crossing them overhead, made an arch of steel under which the women must
pass. Haward's blade touched that of an old acquaintance. "I have been
leaning upon the back of a lady's chair," said the latter gruffly, under
cover of the music and the clashing steel,--"a lady dressed in rose color,
who's as generous (to all save one poor devil) as she is fair. I promised
her I would take her message; the Lord knows I would go to the bottom of
the sea to give her pleasure! She says that you are not yourself; begs
that you will--go quietly away"--

An exclamation from the man next him, and a loud murmur mixed with some
laughter from those in the crowded room who were watching the dancers,
caused the gentleman to break off in the middle of his message. He glanced
over his shoulder; then, with a shrug, turned to his vis-a-vis in white
satin. "Now you see that 'twill not answer,--not in Virginia. T