178 THE FANCY BALL. 



his " Young May Moon " absolutely obscured ; but then it 

 had always been his care to chase away from it every passing, 

 or even approaching, cloud ; and he would certainly have liked, 

 in return, that its very brightest rays should have shone on 

 him direct, instead of reaching him only, as it were, reflected 

 from what in his eyes, certainly, were very inferior objects. 



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 Gosling- 

 ton 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 atW castle. What shapes! grotesque, 

 and gay, and gorgeous ghosts of things departed started up 

 before the sparkling eyes of Emily, as she put the reviving 

 talisman into F 's hand. No wonder that her charmed 

 sight failed to discover what was, however, sufficiently appa- 

 rent, that her husband's delight at the honour done them by 

 no means equalled her's. Indeed we were pretty certain that 

 not merely dissatisfaction, but even dissent, was to be read in 

 his compressed lip, and ; for once, forbidding eye. 



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



