hough." Then, with more confusion in her
manner than I had ever before seen: "That is, it is delightful if one
chooses her partner."

This only made matters worse, and gave Brandon an opportunity.

"Dare I hope?" he asked, with a deferential bow.

"Oh, yes; you may hope. I tell you frankly it was delightful with you.
Now, are you satisfied, my modest one? Jane, I see we have a forward
body here; no telling what he will be at next," said Mary, with
evident impatience, rapidly swaying her fan. She spoke almost sharply,
for Brandon's attitude was more that of an equal than she was
accustomed to, and her royal dignity, which was the artificial part of
her, rebelled against it now and then in spite of her real
inclinations. The habit of receiving only adulation, and living on a
pinnacle above everybody else, was so strong from continued practice,
that it appealed to her as a duty to maintain that elevation. She had
never before been called upon to exert herself in that direction, and
the situation was new. The servile ones with whom she usually
associated maintained it for her; so she now felt, whenever she
thought of it, that she was in duty bound to clamber back, at least
part of the way, to her dignity, however pleasant it was, personally,
down below in the denser atmosphere of informality.

In her heart the princess preferred, upon proper occasions, such as
this, to abate her dignity, and often requested others to dispense
with ceremony, as, in fact, she had done with us earlier in the
evening. But Brandon's easy manner, although perfectly respectful and
elegantly polite, was very different from anything she had ever known.
She enjoyed it, but every now and then the sense of her importance and
dignity--for you must remember she was the first princess of the blood
royal--would supersede even her love of enjoyment, and the girl went
down and the princess came up. Besides, she half feared that Brandon
was amusing himself at her expense, and that, in fact, this was a new
sort of masculine worm. Really, she sometimes doubted if it were a
worm at all, and did not know what to expect, nor what she ought to
do.

She was far more girl than princess, and would have preferred to
remain merely girl and let events take the course they were going,
for she liked it. But there was the other part of her which was
princess, and which kept saying: "Remember who you are," so she was
plainly at a loss between natural and artificial inc