t, being strictly confined to the
display of wealth, can never produce the impressions of durability,
grandeur, and military pomp so dear to every European. Hence the
Englishman turns up his nose at the gilded shows of American society,
and the American sniffs when he finds that the door-scraper of some
great London house is only silverplated instead of being solid, and that
the carpets are at least two years old. They regard things from opposite
points of view, and need never expect to agree.

Margaret, however, was not so new to American life, seeing she was
American born, as to bestow a thought or a glance on the appointments of
Mr. and Mrs. Van Sueindell's establishment; and as for Mr. Bellingham,
he had never cared much for what he called the pomp and circumstance of
pleasure, for he carried pleasure with him in his brilliant conversation
and his ready tact. All places were more or less alike to Mr.
Bellingham. At the present moment, however, he was thinking principally
of his fair charge, and was wondering inwardly what time he would get
home, for he rose early and was fond of a nap in the late evening. He
therefore gave Margaret his arm, and kept a lookout for some amusing man
to introduce to her. He had really enjoyed his dinner and the pleasant
chat afterwards, but the prospect of piloting this magnificent beauty
about till morning, or till she should take it into her head to go home,
was exhausting. Besides, he went little into society of this kind, and
was not over-familiar with the faces he saw.

He need not have been disturbed, however, for they had not been many
minutes in the rooms before a score of men had applied for the "pleasure
of a turn." But still she held Mr. Bellingham's arm, obdurately refusing
to dance. As Barker came up a moment later, willing, perhaps, to show
his triumph to the rejected suitors, Margaret thanked Mr. Bellingham,
and offered to take him home if he would stay until one o'clock; then
she glided away, not to dance but to sit in a quieter room, near the
door of which couples would hover for a quarter of an hour at a time
waiting to seize the next pair of vacant seats. Mr. Bellingham moved
away, amused by the music and the crowd and the fair young faces, until
he found a seat in a corner, shaded from the flare of light by an open
door close by, and there, in five minutes, he was fast asleep in the
midst of the gaiety and noise and heat--unnoticed, a gray old man amid
so much youth