acher, that all was vanity.

Presently, as she stood waiting with her hand on her partner's arm
before gliding into a waltz, she saw Mr. Flaxman opposite to her, and
with him a young _debutante_ in white tulle--a thin, pretty, undeveloped
creature, whose sharp elbows and timid movements, together with the
blushing enjoyment glowing so frankly from her face, pointed her out as
the school-girl of sweet seventeen, just emancipated, and trying her
wings.

'Ah, there is Lady Florence!' said her partner, a handsome young Hussar.
'This ball is in her honour, you know. She comes out to-night. What,
another cousin? Really she keeps too much in the family!'

'Is Mr. Flaxman a cousin?'

The young man replied that he was, and then, in the intervals of
waltzing, went on to explain to her the relationships of many of the
people present, till the whole gorgeous affair began to seem to Rose a
mere family party. Mr. Flaxman was of it. She was not.

'Why am I here?' the little Jacobin said to herself fiercely as she
waltzed; 'it is foolish, unprofitable. I do not belong to them, nor they
to me!'

'Miss Leyburn! charmed to see you!' cried Lady Charlotte, stopping her;
and then, in a loud whisper in her ear, 'Never saw you look better. Your
taste, or Helen's, that dress? The roses--exquisite!'

Rose dropped her a little mock curtsey and whirled on again.

'_Lady Florences_ are always well dressed,' thought the child angrily;
'and who notices it?'

Another turn brought them against Mr. Flaxman and his partner. Mr.
Flaxman came at once to greet her with smiling courtesy.

'I have a Cambridge friend to introduce to you--a beautiful youth. Shall
I find you by Helen? Now, Lady Florence, patience a moment. That corner
is too crowded. How good that last turn was!'

And bending with a sort of kind chivalry over his partner, who looked at
him with the eyes of a joyous excited child, he led her away. Five
minutes later Rose, standing flushed by Lady Helen, saw him coming again
towards her, ushering a tall blue-eyed youth, whom he introduced to her
as 'Lord Waynflete.' The handsome boy looked at her with a boy's open
admiration, and beguiled her of a supper dance, while a group standing
near, a mother and three daughters, stood watching with cold eyes and
expressions which said plainly to the initiated that mere beauty was
receiving a ridiculous amount of attention.

'I wouldn't have given it him, but it is _rude_--it is _bad manners_,