ut she had
to dress, and he went off to smoke in the grounds with Don Roberto, Mr.
Polk, Mr. Washington, and Colonel Belmont. They subsequently had a game
of bowls, and--excepting Colonel Belmont--several cocktails. When they
suddenly remembered that a ball was in progress to which they were
expected, it was eleven o'clock, and Trennahan was not dressed.

It was Helena's ball, but she had made every man promise to look after
the wall-flowers, that she might be at liberty to enjoy herself. Her
aunt, Mrs. Yorba, and Magdalena received with her; and as all the guests
had arrived by the same train, and had dressed at about the same time,
the arduous duty of receiving was soon over. Helena left the stragglers
to her chaperons and prepared to amuse herself. As usual, she had
refused to engage herself for any dances, but she gave the first two to
her devoted four, then announced her intention to dance no more for the
present. The truth was that one of her minute high-heeled slippers
pinched, but this she had no intention of acknowledging; if men wished
to think her an angel, so they should. She was a sensible person, far
too practical to reduce the sum of her happiness by physical discomfort;
but the slippers, which she had never tried on, matched her gown, and
she had no others with her that did. But the one rift in her lute
induced a sympathetic rift in her temper.

The party was very gay and pretty. The rooms had been fantastically
decorated with red berries and snowballs, pine, and cedar. The leader of
the band was in that stage of intoxication which promised music to make
the soles of the dado tingle. All the girls had brought their prettiest
frocks, and all the matrons their diamonds. There were no tiaras in the
Eighties, but there were a few necklaces, stars, and ear-rings--of the
vulgar variety known as "solitaires." It is true that certain of the
Fungi looked like crystal chandeliers upon occasion; but Helena would
have none of them.

Herself had rarely been more lovely,--in floating clouds of pale pink
tulle, which looked like a shower of almond blossoms. Her hair was roped
up with pearls, hinting the head-dress of Juliet, but stopping short of
eccentric effect. She wore nothing to break the lines of her throat and
neck, but on her arms were quantities of odd and beautiful "bangles,"
many made from her own suggestions, others picked up in different parts
of the world.

She was standing opposite the door in the mi