said Harry, pettishly.

"Bless you, man," replied Tom, "how can you say so. I am downright
chilly; but as there is to be dancing, it is better it should be so."

"If you find this room warm, Harry," said Mrs. Castleton, "you had
better go in the dancing-room--there is not a spark of fire there."

Harry walked off, and Emma said,

"I don't know what is the matter with him--he's so cross. He has been
so irritable all day that I have hardly dared to speak to him."

Tom only laughed.

Mrs. Castleton gave him a quick look of intelligence, but before she
had time to speak, she was called upon to receive her guests, who
began to come.

At every fresh arrival Harry's face was to be seen peeping in
anxiously from the dancing-room, and it wore something of a look of
relief as he turned off each time to resume his restless wanderings in
the still empty apartment.

Miss Dawson, meaning to be very fashionable, came late. The bride for
whom the party was ostensibly given had arrived; and Mrs. Castleton
was about giving orders to have the dancing-room thrown open, and just
at the pause that frequently precedes such a movement in a small
party, the door was thrown open, and Miss Dawson entered, leaning on
the arm of a gentleman whom she introduced as Mr. Hardwicks. Now this
Mr. Hardwicks was something more than Mrs. Castleton had bargained
for; and Harry hastened forward with a look of some embarrassment and
vexation as he perceived the mistake his fair friend had made in
taking such a liberty with his high-bred sister. Miss Dawson had often
taken _him_ to parties with her, and somehow it had not struck him
then as strange. Perhaps it was because he saw it was the style among
those around him. But these were not the "customs of Branksome Hall;"
and Harry was evidently annoyed. Moreover, this Mr. Hardwicks was a
forward, under-bred looking individual, with a quantity of black
whisker, and brass buttons to his claret-colored coat, altogether a
very different looking person from the black-coated, gentlemanly-looking
set that Mrs. Castleton had invited. She received him with a graceful
but distant bow, somewhat annoyed, it is true; but as she never
allowed trifles to disturb her, she turned calmly away, and never gave
him a second thought during the evening.

Miss Dawson she received with _empressement_. She was dressed to her
heart's delight, with a profusion of mock pearl and tinsel; her hair
in a shower of long curls in front