tanford, with the faintest shadow of a knowing smile on his face,
took Kate's arm and led her down stairs.

"The brown eyes and serene face of your demure housekeeper have stronger
charms for my papa-in-law than anything within the four walls of the
Ponsonbys. What would Kate say, I wonder, if I told her?"

As usual, Captain Danton's two daughters were the belles of the room.
Kate was queenly as ever, and as far out of the reach of everything
masculine, with one exception, as the moon; Rose, in a changeful silk,
half dove, half pink, that blushed as she walked, with a wreath of ivy
in her glossy hair, turned heads wherever she went. Doctor Frank had the
privilege of the first dance. After that she was surrounded by all the
most eligible young men in the room. Rose, with a glow on her rounded
cheeks, and a brilliancy in her eyes, that excitement had lent, danced
and flirted, and laughed, and sang, and watched furtively, all the
while, the only man present she cared one iota for. That eminently
handsome young officer, Mr. Stanford, after devoting himself, as in duty
bound, to his stately fiancee, resigned her, after a while, to an
epauletted Colonel from Montreal, and made himself agreeable to Helen
Ponsonby, and Emily Howard, and sundry other pretty girls. Rose watched
him angry and jealous inwardly, smiling and radiant outwardly. Their
fingers touched in the same set, but Rose never deigned him a glance.
Her perfumed skirts brushed him as she flew by in the redowa, but she
never looked up.

"He shall see how little I care," thought jealous Rose. "I suppose he
thinks I am dying for him, but he shall find out how much he is
mistaken."

With this thought in her mind, she sat down while her partner went for
an ice. It was the first time that night she had been a moment alone.
Mr. Stanford, leaning against a pillar idly, took advantage of it, and
was beside her before she knew it. Her cheeks turned scarlet, and her
heart quickened involuntarily as he sat down beside her.

"I have been ignored so palpably all evening that I am half afraid to
come near you," he said; "will it be high treason to ask you to waltz
with me!"

Alas for Rose's heroic resolutions! How was she to resist the persuasive
voice and smile of this man? How was she to resist the delight of
waltzing with him? She bowed in silence, still with averted eyes; and
Lieutenant Stanford, smiling slightly, drew her hand within his arm. Her
late partner came up