John Stanway had a singular capacity for not enjoying himself on those social occasions when to enjoy one’s self is a duty to the company.  But this evening, as the hour advanced, he showed the symptoms of a sharp attack of gaiety such as visited him from time to time.  He and Dr. Hawley and Dain formed an ebullient centre of high spirits, and they upheld the ancient traditions; they professed a liking for old-fashioned dances, and for old-fashioned ways of dancing the steps which modern enthusiasm for the waltz had not extinguished.  And they found an appreciable number of followers.  The organisers of the ball, the upholders of correctness, punctilio, and the mode, fretted and fought against the antagonistic influence.  ‘Ass!’ said the conductor of the opera bitterly when Harry Burgess told him that Stanway had suggested Sir Roger de Coverley for an extra, ’I wonder what his wife thinks of him!’ Sir Roger de Coverley was not danced, but twenty or thirty late stayers, with Stanway and Dain in charge, crossed hands in a circle and sang ‘Auld Lang Syne’ at the close.  It was one of those incredible things that can only occur between midnight and cock-crow.  During this revolting rite, the conductor and his friends sought sanctuary in the refreshment-room.  Leonora, Ethel, and Milly were also there, but Rose and the lady-member of the School Board had remained upstairs to sing ‘Auld Lang Syne.’

‘Now, girls,’ said Stanway with loud good humour, invading the select apartment with his followers, ’time to go.  Carpenter’s been waiting half-an-hour.  Your foot all right again, Nora?’

‘Quite,’ she replied.  ‘Are you really ready?’

She had so interminably waited that she could not believe the evening to be at length actually finished.

They all exchanged adieux, Stanway and his cronies effusively, the opposing and outraged faction with a certain fine acrimony.  ’Good-night, Fred,’ said John, throwing a backward patronising glance at Ryley, who had strolled uneasily into the room.  The young man paused before replying.  ‘Good-night,’ he said stiffly, and his demeanour indicated:  ‘Do not patronise me too much.’  Fred could not dance, but he had audaciously sat out four dances with Ethel, at this his first ball, and the serious young man had the strange agreeable sensation of feeling a dog.  He dared not, however, accompany Ethel to the carriage, as Harry Burgess accompanied Millicent.  Harry had been partially restored to favour again during the latter half of the entertainment, just in time to prevent him from getting tipsy.  The fact was that Millicent had vaguely expected, in view of her position as prima donna, to be ’the belle of the ball’; but there had been no belle, and Millicent was put to the inconvenience of discovering that she could do nothing without footlights.

‘I asked Twemlow to come up to-morrow night, Nora,’ said John, still elated, turning on the box-seat as the waggonette rattled briskly over the paved crossing at the top of Oldcastle Street.