xman was of it. She was not.

'Why am I here?' the little Jacobin said to herself fiercely as she
waltzed; 'it is foolish, unprofitable. I do not belong to them, nor they
to me!'

'Miss Leyburn! charmed to see you!' cried, Lady Charlotte, stopping her;
and then, in a loud whisper in her ear, 'Never saw you look better. Your
taste, or Helen's, that dress? The roses--exquisite!'

Rose, dropped her a little mock courtesy and whirled on again.

'_Lady Florences_ are always well dressed,' thought the child angrily;
'and who notices it?'

Another turn brought them against Mr. Flaxman and his partner. Mr.
Flaxman came at once to greet her with smiling courtesy.

'I have a Cambridge friend to introduce to you--a beautiful youth. Shall
I find you by Helen? Now, Lady Florence, patience a moment. That corner
is too crowded. How good that last turn was!'

And bending with a sort of kind chivalry over his partner, who looked
at him with the eyes of a joyous, excited child, he led her away. Five
minutes later Rose, standing flushed by Lady Helen, saw him coming again
toward her, ushering a tall blue-eyed youth, whom he introduced to her
as 'Lord Waynflete.' The handsome boy looked at her with a boy's open
admiration, and beguiled her of a supper dance, while a group standing
near, a mother and three daughters, stood watching with cold eyes and
expressions which said plainly to the initiated that mere beauty was
receiving a ridiculous amount of attention.

'I wouldn't have given it him, but it is _rude_--it is _bad manners_,
not even to ask!' the supposed victress was saying to herself, with
quivering lips, her eyes following not the Trinity freshman, who was
their latest captive, but an older man's well-knit figure, and a head on
which the fair hair was already growing scantily, receding a little from
the fine intellectual brows.

An hour later she was again standing by Lady Helen, waiting for a
partner, when she saw two persons crossing the room, which was just
beginning to fill again for dancing, toward them. One was Mr. Flaxman,
the other was a small wrinkled old man, who leant upon his arm,
displaying the ribbon of the Garter as he walked.

'Dear me,' said Lady Helen, a little fluttered, 'here is my uncle
Sedbergh. I thought they had left town.'

The pair approached, and the old Duke bowed over his niece's hand, with
the manners of a past generation.

'I made Hugh give me an arm,' he said quaveringly. 'These floors