e. He steered his way well, and went with
a strong swing that covered a great deal of ground; but there was a
want of finish. Lady Mabel looked as if she were being carried away by
a maelstrom. And now people began to move towards the supper-rooms, of
which there were two, luxuriously arranged with numerous round tables
in the way that was still a novelty when "Lothair" was written. This
gave more room for the dancers. The people for whom a ball meant a
surfeit of perigord pie, truffled turkey, salmon _mayonnaise_, and
early strawberries, went for their first innings, meaning to return to
that happy hunting-ground as often as proved practicable. Violet was
carried off by a partner who was so anxious to take her to supper that
she felt sure he was dying to get some for himself.

Her cavalier found her a corner at a snug little table with three
gorgeous matrons. She ate a cutlet and a teaspoonful of peas, took
three sips from a glass of champagne, and wound up with some
strawberries, which tasted as if they had been taken by mistake out of
the pickle-jar.

"I'm afraid you haven't had a very good supper." said her partner, who
had been comfortably wedged between two of the matrons, consuming
mayonnaise and pate to his heart's content.

"Excellent, thanks. I shall be glad to make room for someone else."
Whereat the unfortunate young man was obliged to stand up, leaving the
choicest morsel of truffled goose-liver on his plate.

The crowd in the picture-gallery was thinner when Violet went back. In
the doorway she met Roderick Vawdrey.

"Haven't you kept a single dance for me, Violet?" he asked.

"You didn't ask me to keep one."

"Didn't I? Perhaps I was afraid of Captain Winstanley's displeasure. He
would have objected, no doubt."

"Why should he object, unless I broke an engagement to him?"

"Would he not? Are you actually free to be asked by anyone? If I had
known that two hours ago! And now, I suppose your programme is full.
Yes, to the very last galop; for which, of course, you won't stop. But
there's to be an extra waltz presently. You must give me that."

She said neither yes nor no, and he put her hand through his arm and
led her up the room.

"Have you seen mamma?"

"Yes. She thinks I am grown. She forgets that I was one-and-twenty when
we last met. That does not leave much margin for growing, unless a man
went on getting taller indefinitely, like Lord Southminster's palms. He
had to take the roof off