ged for the purpose; and the refreshments in an
adjoining room, consisting of negus, apples, oranges, cold roast-beef,
and biscuits, were under the immediate superintendence of our very
excellent friend, Mr. Gilbert Cherryripe. At nine o'clock, which was
considered a fashionable hour, the hall was nearly full, and the first
country dance was commenced by the eldest son and presumptive heir of
old Squire Thoroughbred, who conducted gracefully through its mazes the
chosen divinity of his heart, Miss Wilhelmina Bouncer, only daughter of
Tobias Bouncer, Esq., Justice of Peace in the county of Shropshire.

Enjoyment was at its height, and the three professional fiddlers had put
a spirit of life into all things, when suddenly one might perceive that
the merriment was for a moment checked, whilst a more than usual bustle
pervaded the room. The stranger had entered it; and there was something
so different in his looks and manner from those of any of the other male
creatures, that everybody surveyed him with renewed curiosity, which was
at first slightly tinctured with awe. "Who can he be?" was the question
that instantaneously started up like a crocus in many a throbbing bosom.
"He knows nobody, and nobody knows him; surely he will never think of
asking anybody to dance."

For a long time the stranger stood aloof from the dancers in a corner by
himself.

At length, something like a change seemed to come over the spirit of his
dreams. His eye fell on Emily Sommers, and appeared to rest where it
fell with no small degree of pleasure. No wonder. Emily was not what is
generally styled beautiful; but there was a sweetness, a modesty, a
gentleness about her, that charmed the more the longer it was observed.
She was the only child of a widowed mother. Her father had died many a
year ago in battle; and the pension of an officer's widow was all the
fortune he had left them. But nature had bestowed riches of a more
valuable kind than those which fortune had denied. I wish I could
describe Emily Sommers; but I shall not attempt it. She was one of those
whose virtues are hid from the blaze of the world, only to be the more
appreciated by those who can understand them.

It was to Emily Sommers that the stranger first spoke. He walked right
across the room and asked her to dance with him. Emily had never seen
him before; but concluding that he had come there with some of her
friends, and little acquainted with the rules of etiquette, she