“Always the ball!” cried I, slapping my boots in a temper.  “Is it, then, such a matter of importance?  I am sure you have danced before—­at my birthdays in Marlboro’ Street and at your own, and Will Fotheringay’s, and I know not how many others.”

“Of course,” replies Dolly, sweetly; “but never with a real man.  Boys like you and Will and the Lloyds do not count.  Dr. Courtenay is at Wilmot House, and is coming to-night; and he has asked me out.  Think of it, Richard!  Dr. Courtenay!”

“A plague upon him!  He is a fop!”

“A fop!” exclaimed Dolly, her humour bettering as mine went down.  “Oh, no; you are jealous.  He is more sought after than any gentleman at the assemblies, and Miss Dulany vows his steps are ravishing.  There’s for you, my lad!  He may not be able to keep pace with you in the chase, but he has writ the most delicate verses ever printed in Maryland, and no other man in the colony can turn a compliment with his grace.  Shall I tell you more?  He sat with me for over an hour last night, until mamma sent me off to bed, and was very angry at you because I had engaged to ride with you to-day.”

“And I suppose you wish you had stayed with him,” I flung back, hotly.  “He had spun you a score of fine speeches and a hundred empty compliments by now.”

“He had been better company than you, sir,” she laughed provokingly.  “I never heard you turn a compliment in your life, and you are now seventeen.  What headway do you expect to make at the assemblies?”

“None,” I answered, rather sadly than otherwise.  For she had touched me upon a sore spot.  “But if I cannot win a woman save by compliments,” I added, flaring up, “then may I pay a bachelor’s tax!”

My lady drew her whip across my knee.

“You must tell us we are beautiful, Richard,” said she, in another tone.

“You have but to look in a pier-glass,” I retorted.  “And, besides, that is not sufficient.  You will want some rhyming couplet out of a mythology before you are content.”

She laughed again.

“Sir,” answered she, “but you have wit, if you can but be got angry.”

She leaned over the dial’s face, and began to draw the Latin numerals with her finger.  So arch, withal, that I forgot my ill-humour.

“If you would but agree to stay angry for a day,” she went on, in a low tone, “perhaps—­”

“Perhaps?”

“Perhaps you would be better company,” said Dorothy.  “You would surely be more entertaining.”

“Dorothy, I love you,” I said.

“To be sure.  I know that,” she replied.  “I think you have said that before.”

I admitted it sadly.  “But I should be a better husband than Dr. Courtenay.”

“La!” cried she; “I am not thinking of husbands.  I shall have a good time, sir, I promise you, before I marry.  And then I should never marry you.  You are much too rough, and too masterful.  And you would require obedience.  I shall never obey any man.  You would be too strict a master, sir.  I can see it with your dogs and your servants.  And your friends, too.  For you thrash any boy who does not agree with you.  I want no rough squire for a husband.  And then, you are a Whig.  I could never marry a Whig.  You behaved disgracefully at King William’s School last year.  Don’t deny it!”