214 THE FANCY BALL. 



the rapturous delight with which she greeted certain occasional 

 breaks in the monotony of a country life. An approaching 

 dinner-party would raise her tide of spirits, and a distant ball 

 or archery-meeting make them swell into a flood. On one or 

 two of such occasions we fancied that F , though never 

 stern, looked grave grave enough to have been set down as 

 an unreasonable fellow ; if not by every one, at least by that 

 complex " everybody," who declared that his wife was " one 

 of the prettiest and sweetest little women in the world," and, 

 as everybody must be right, so of course it was. 



We had passed some weeks at our entertainer's cottage, 

 when rumours got afloat, such as had not disturbed, for many 

 a year, the standing and sometimes stagnant pool of Goslington 

 society. The son of Lord W was about to come of age, 

 and the event was to be celebrated by grand doings ; a varied 

 string of entertainments, to be wound up, so it was whispered, 

 by a great parti-coloured or fancy-ball. Rumours were soon 

 silenced by certainty, and our friends were amongst those who 

 received an invitation to meet all the world of Goslington and 

 a fragment of the world of London, about to be brought 

 into strange conjunction at W castle. 



Nothing was said then upon the subject; but we saw the 

 next morning something very like coolness on the part of F 

 towards his wife, which was returned on hers by something 

 very like petulance. Ah ! thought we, it all comes of this 

 unlucky fancy ball ! We had often heard it declared by our 

 friend that he hated every species of masquerade, and would 

 never allow (though this was certainly before his marriage) 

 either sister, wife, or daughter of his to attend one. 



The slight estrangement spoken of did not wholly pass away, 

 though so trifling were its tokens, that no eye less interested 

 than our own might have noticed their existence. Indeed 

 neither of the parties seemed really angry with the other, 

 appearing rather to think it incumbent on them to keep up a 

 certain show of coolness; but whenever the sunny smile of 



