u return to me."

He gave her to the next partner, with a graceful inclination of the
head.

There were numberless evolutions before he could take her again. She
glanced up out of sweet, questioning eyes.

"I've been considering," he resumed, as if they had not parted. "You
see, it is this way. My father is very, very fond of me, though there
are other children. Then I have my mother's fortune, which he has been
very watchful of. He is a splendid, upright, honourable man. Now, if
your father asked such a thing of you,--what I mean is, if he asked you
to see some one and learn how well you could like her or him--"

She was off again. Oh, what a sweet little fairy she was! What poet
wrote about twinkling feet? Hers certainly twinkled in their daintiness.
He had not considered her prettiness at first; now it seemed as if she
was exquisitely fair, with that soft pink in her cheeks.

"Yes. Do you not believe you would go to please him, and see? And you
might not like her, and she might not like you. But sometimes people do
take sudden fancies. What do you think, looking at it out of an American
girl's eyes?"

"I should go for my father's sake."

There was such a delicate gravity in her clear eyes as she raised them a
little.

"Thank you," he returned softly. "What an odd thing to talk of in the
midst of our dancing! When you are older, you will find people making a
confidante of you very often, you seem so serious and truthful."

They were coming down to the end of the winding chain; Mr. and Mrs.
Jasper stood there. One more figure, and the cornet and horns and
violins gave three long breaths of melody and stopped.

"My dear children," said Mrs. Jasper, as she stretched out her hand.
"Daisy, you will be in bed all day to-morrow! Your mother will never
trust me with you again, Hanny; I didn't think it would be so long."

"But it was so delightful, mamma." Daisy was in a tumult of pleasure.

"We must go at once. Mr. Jasper will be back by the time we have found
our wraps. Doctor, I can't thank you for making such a patient martyr of
yourself, only you are always so good. Hanny, have you had a nice time?"

"It has been splendid," with a long, long breath, and shining lights in
her eyes.

Delia went to the dressing-room with them.

"I'm going to have two more dances," she said. "It is the first real
ball I've been to in a long while. I'm so glad you came. Ben says he
never imagined you were so pretty. Think of