were very successful, and so was the ball. I was so anxious
to hear how Eleanor had sped, that I felt quite sure that I could not go
to sleep, and that it was a farce to go to bed just when she was
beginning to dance. I went, however, at last, and had had half a
night's sound sleep before rustling, and chattering, and the light from
bed-candles woke me to hear the news.

Matilda was looking pale, and somewhat dishevelled, and a great deal of
the costume at which we had laboured was reduced to rags. Eleanor's
dress was intact, and she herself looked perfectly fresh, partly because
she had resisted, with great difficulty, the extreme length of train
then fashionable, and partly from a sort of general compactness which
seems a natural gift with some people. Poor Matilda had nearly fainted
after one of the dances, and had brought away a violent headache; but
she declared that she had enjoyed herself, and would have stayed to
relate her adventures, but Colonel Buller would not allow it, and sent
her to bed. Eleanor slept with me, so our gossip was unopposed, except
by warnings.

I set fire to my hair in the effort to decipher the well-filled ball
card, but we put it out, and the candle also, and chatted in bed.

"You must have danced every dance," I said, admiringly.

"We sat out one or two that are down," said Eleanor; "and No. 21 was
supper, but I danced all the rest."

"There was one man you danced several times with," I said, "but I
couldn't make out his name. It looks as if it began with a G."

"Oh, it's not his real name," said Eleanor. "It's the one he says you
used to call him by. One reason why I liked him, Margery dear, was
because he said he had been so fond of you. You were such a dear little
thing, he said. I told him the locket and chain were in good
preservation."

"Was it Mr. George?" I cried, with so much energy that Aunt Theresa (who
slept next door) heard us, and knocked on the wall to bid us go to
sleep.

"We're just going to," Eleanor shouted, and added in lower tones, to me,
"Yes, it was Captain Abercrombie. Colonel Buller introduced him to me.
He is so nice, and so delightfully fond of dogs and of you, Margery."

"Shall I see him?" I asked. "I should like to see him again. He was very
good to me when I was little."

"Oh yes," said Eleanor. "It was curious his being in the neighbourhood;
for the 202nd is in Dublin, you know. And, Margery, he says he has an
uncle in Yorkshire. He----"

"Gir