‘Great offer,’ said Mr. Kingsland; ’but to-night the Sorceress prefers walking.’

‘Stuff!—­who cares what she prefers?’

’Some nine-tenths—­and a fraction—­of all the men here,—­myself included,’ said Mr. Kingsland.

‘You are the fraction, or you’d manage it,’ retorted Kitty.  ‘It’s doubtful if she would dance with you.’

‘She will not dance with anybody this night,’ said Mr. Kingsland.

‘How do you know?’

‘Said so.  And what Miss Kennedy has said, she does.’

‘Why, she couldn’t dance in that long train,’ said Molly Seaton.

‘Little goose!’ said Kitty Fisher, ’she would hang that over her partner’s arm.’

‘Would she!’ said Mr. Kingsland, with a slight whistle.  ’I asked her to do it once:  I think I shall not again.’

‘She’d rather talk to six men than dance with one, I suppose,’ said Miss Fisher, eyeing the girl who stood now leaning against a tree in the distance.

‘And the post of the seventh looks so inviting!’ said Mr. Kingsland, rising and strolling off.

‘Isn’t it too much!’ said Kitty Fisher.  ’See here, girls and boys, listen,’—­and heads and voices too went down below recognition.

A little later in the evening, Gotham from his seclusion in the servants’ quarters was summoned to speak to a lady.  He found awaiting him, not his mistress, but a wonderful pyramid of white tarletan from which issued a voice.

’Miss Hazel is going to spend the night with Mrs. Seaton, and she sends you word that you may go home and come back for her at eight o’clock in the morning.’

‘Ain’t that clever?’ said Phinny to the cavalier on whose arm she leaned, as they retraced their way towards the lighted portion of the grounds.  ‘Now I have disposed of one trouble.’

All unconscious of this machination Wych Hazel kept on her walk—­the only thing she could decide to do to-night.  In fact the girl hardly knew her own mood.  Of course the strictures that had been made were all unfounded, as touching her; but the words had given such pain at the time, that the very idea of dancing made her wince as if she heard them again.  That would wear off, of course, but for the present she would walk; and had, as Molly guessed, put on her long train as a token.  But when the concert began to tend towards the German, another fancy seized her:  to stay and look on, and get that outside view which was almost unknown.  And so when the first set was forming she released Major Seaton for his partner, and again took Mr. May’s arm and walked towards the dancers.

‘My dear,’ said Mme. Lasalle, coming up on the other side, ‘are you not dancing?’

‘As you see, Madame!’ said Hazel, with a slight bend and laugh.

‘You not dancing!  What’s the matter?’

’Well—­you will find it is a freak, or I tired myself last night, or I want to make a sensation—­according to whom you ask,’ said Wych Hazel.