nd say something to you? He is too shy, I suppose."

"I dare say," said the Colonel with his most fascinating gentle smile.
"One must not expect enthusiasm of boys. I have no doubt he thought it a
great bore and wondered what I was aiming at."

"Impossible," exclaimed the fair enslaver. "Don't do him an injustice,
Colonel de Willoughby."

But as she glanced towards the doorway her voice died down and the
expression of her face changed somewhat. The boy--still with his hands in
his pockets--was looking on with an air which was as insolent as it was
remarkable, an air of youthful scorn and malignant derision which
staggered even the enthusiast.

She turned uneasily to the Colonel, who faintly smiled.

"He is a handsome fellow," he said, "and I must own to being a vain
parent, but he has a demon of a temper and he has been spoiled. He'll get
over it when he is older."

It was a great blow to his admirers when it became known the next morning
that the Colonel was suffering from one of his attacks, and even a worse
one than usual. Neb was shut up in his room with him all day, and it was
rumoured that the boy would not come down, but wandered up and down the
corridors restlessly, looking miserable enough to have touched the
stoniest heart.

During the morning quite a gloom pervaded the atmosphere; only the
excitement of preparations for the evening could have proved an antidote
to the general depression.

It was to be a brilliant occasion. The county had been scoured for
guests, some of whom were to travel in their carriages from other
watering-places for twenty or thirty miles. The ballroom had been
decorated by a committee of ladies; the costumes, it was anticipated,
would be dazzling beyond measure. No disappointment was felt when the
festal hour arrived, but the very keen emotion attendant upon the absence
of the interesting invalid.

"If he had only been well enough to be here," it was said, "how he would
have enjoyed it."

Major Beaufort, attired as a Sultan and appropriately surrounded by his
harem in sarsenet trousers and spangled veils, gave universal
satisfaction. Minnehaha in feathers and moccasins, and Hiawatha in
moccasins and feathers, gave a touch of mild poetry to the evening.
Sisters of Charity in white cambric caps told their beads through the
mazes of the lancers. Night and Morning, attired respectively in black
and white tarletan, and both profusely adorned with silver paper stars,
combined th