insolence of young Hardie, it soon recovered, and,
true to its sex, attacked, him obliquely, through
his white ladye.

"Who is the beauty of the ball?" asked one,
haughtily.

"I don't know; but not that mawkish thing
in limp muslin."

"I should say Miss Hetherington is the belle,"
suggested a third.

"Oh, beyond question."

"Which is Miss Hetherington?" asked the
Oxonian coolly of Alfred.

"Oh, she won't do for us. It is that little
chalk faced girl, dressed in pink with red roses;
the pink of vulgarity and bad taste."

At this both Oxonians laughed arrogantly, and
Mrs. Dodd withdrew her hand from the speaker's
arm and glided away behind the throng. Julia
looked at him with marked anxiety. He
returned her look, and was sore puzzled what it
meant, till he found Mrs. Dodd had withdrawn
softly from him; then he stood confused,
regretting, too late, he had not obeyed her positive
request, and tried to imitate her dignified
forbearance.

The quadrille ended. He instantly stepped
forward, and, bowing politely to the cornet, said
authoritatively, "Mrs. Dodd sends me to conduct
you to her. With your permission, sir." His
arm was offered and taken before the little
warrior knew where he was.

He had her on his arm, soft, light, and
fragrant as zephyr, and her cool breath wooing his
neck; oh, the thrill of that moment! but her
first word was to ask him with considerable
anxiety, "Why did mamma leave you?"

"Miss Dodd, l am the most unhappy of men."

"No doubt! no doubt!" said she, a little
crossly. She added with one of her gushes of
naïveté, "and I shall be unhappy too if you
displease mamma."

"What could I do? A gang of snobbesses were
detracting from—somebody. To speak plainly,
they were running down the loveliest of her sex.
Your mamma told me to keep quiet. And so I
did till I got a fair chance, and then I gave it
them in their teeth." He ground his own, and
added, "I think I was very good not to kick
them."

Julia coloured with pleasure, and proceeded to
turn it off; "Oh! most forbearing and considerate,"
said she: "ah, by the way, I think I did
hear some ladies express a misgiving as to the
pecuniary value of my costume; ha! haI Oh
—you—foolish—thing!—Fancy minding that!
Why it is in little sneers that the approval of the
ladies shows itself at a ball, and it is a much
sincerer compliment than the gentlemen's
bombastical praises; 'the fairest of her sex,' and so on;
that none but the 'silliest of her sex' believes."

"I did not say the fairest of her sex; I said
the loveliest of her sex."

"Oh, that alters the case entirely," said Julia,
whose spirits were mounting with the lights and
music, and Alfred's company, "so now come and
be reconciled to the best and wisest of her sex;
ay, and the beautifullest, if you but knew her
sweet, dear, darling face as I do; there she is;
let us fly. Mamma, here is a penitent for you,
real or feigned."

"Real, Mrs. Dodd," said Alfred. "I had no
right to disobey you and risk a scene. You
served me right by abandoning me; I feel the
rebuke and its justice. Let me hope your
vengeance will go no further."

Mrs. Dodd smiled at the grandiloquence of
youth, and told him he had mistaken her
character. "I saw I had acquired a generous,
hot-headed ally, who was bent on doing battle
with insects; so I withdrew; but so I should at
Waterloo, or anywhere else, where people put
themselves in a passion."

The band struck up again.

"Ah!" said Julia, "and I promised you this
dance; but it is a waltz; and my guardian angel
objects to the valse à deux temps."

"Decidedly. Should all the mothers in
England permit their daughters to romp, and wrestle,
in public, and call it waltzing, I must stand firm
till they return to their senses."

Julia looked at Alfred despondently; he took
his cue and said with a smile, "Well, perhaps it
is a leetle brutal; a donkey's gallop and then
twirl her like a mop."

"Since you admit that, perhaps you can waltz
comme il fant?" said Mrs. Dodd.

Alfred said he ought; he had given his whole
soul to it in Germany last Long.

"Then I can have the pleasure of dropping the
tyrant. Away with you both while there is room
to circulate.

Alfred took his partner delicately; they made
just two catlike steps forward, and melted into
the waltz.

It was an exquisite moment. To most young
people Love comes after a great deal of waltzing.
But this pair brought the awakened tenderness,
and trembling sensibilities, of two burning hearts,
to this their first intoxicating whirl. To them,
therefore, everything was an event, everything
was a thrill—the first meeting and timid pressure
of their hands, the first delicate enfolding of her
supple waist by his strong arm but trembling
hand, the delightful unison of their unerring
feet, the movement, the music, the soft delicious
whirl, her cool breath saluting his neck, his
ardent but now liquid eyes seeking hers tenderly,
and drinking them deep, hers that now and then
sipped his so sweetly—all these were new and
separate joys, that linked themselves in one soft
delirium of bliss. It was not a waltz; it was
an Ecstasy.

Starting almost alone, this peerless pair danced
a gauntlet. On each side admiration and detraction
buzzed all the time.

"Beautiful! They are turning in the air."

"Quite gone by. That's how the old fogies
dance."

Chorus of shallow males. "How well she
waltzes."