We went to the ball in omnibuses and broughams, the usual thing; but Octavia took care that I sat between her and Lady Cecilia.  Mrs. Murray-Hartley was so beautifully dressed, and her jewels were superb, and everything in very good taste.  She is really a very agreeable woman to talk to, Mamma, and one can’t blame her for wanting to be in Society.  It must be so much nicer than Bayswater, where they came from, and Octavia says it proves her intelligence; it is easier to rise from the gutter than from the suburbs.

Everybody had arrived when our party got to the ball.  The Rooses are staying at Pennythorn, and Jane came and said to me at once how sorry she was to see me looking pale, and she hoped I would be able to enjoy myself—­I wasn’t pale, Mamma, I am sure, but I did feel just a teeny bit sorry I had quarrelled again with Lord Valmond.  He never came near me, and everything seemed to be at sixes and sevens; people got cross because I mixed up their dances quite unintentionally, and, I don’t know why, I did not enjoy myself a bit, in spite of Sir Hugh saying every sort of lovely thing to me.  I had supper with him, and Lord Valmond was near with Lady Doraine, and she was being so nice to him, Mamma, leaning over and looking into his eyes, and I don’t think it good form, do you?  Two or three dances afterwards, when we went back to the ballroom, there was a polka; I danced it with some idiot who almost at once let yards and yards of my gauze frills get torn, so I was obliged to go to the cloak-room to have it pinned up.

[Sidenote:  An Unpleasant Incident]

It was a long way off, and when I came out my partner had disappeared, and there was no one about but Lord Doraine, and the moment I saw him I hated the look in his eyes, they seemed all swimming; and he said in such a nasty fat voice:  “Little darling, I have sent your partner away, and I am waiting for you, come and sit out with me among the palms,” and I don’t know why, but I felt frightened, and so I said, “No!” that I was going back to the ballroom.  And he got nearer and nearer, and caught hold of my arm, and said, “No, no, you shall not unless you give me a kiss first.”  And he would not let me pass.  I can’t imagine why, Mamma, but I never felt so frightened in my life; and just then, walking aimlessly down the passage, came Lord Valmond.

He saw us and came up quickly, and I was so glad to see some one, that I ran to him, as Lord Doraine let me pass directly he caught sight of Harry—­I mean Lord Valmond—­and he was in such a rage when he saw how I was trembling, and said, “What has that brute been saying to you?” and looked as if he wanted to go back and fight him; but I was so terrified that I could only say, “Do come away!”

[Sidenote:  The Engagement]