136 A BALL ROOM, AND A BELLE. 



" My turn now, I believe, ain't it, Miss Merton ?" 

 muttered the peer. 



"Your turn for what, my Lord ?" she answered in 

 a low voice, turning white and red rapidly in succes- 

 sion. 



"Engaged to me, I mean, for this galloppe?" 



" Certainly not, my Lord, for this or any other. 

 You have not even asked me to dance, or spoken to 

 me this evening." 



" Short memory, I'm afraid," replied Jar dinier with 

 a sneer, and an insolent glance at Fairfax. " Old 

 promise since last meeting ; got a new partner, and 

 short memory, hey?" 



Mary turned deadly pale for one moment, and felt 

 that she was on the point of fainting, but she had a 

 resolute will, and exerted it resolutely, mastering her 

 fears and feelings. But ere she could answer him, 

 she heard Fairfax say as smoothly and serenely as if 

 he had been asking the lout to take a glass of wine 

 with him. 



" Miss Morton's memory is not so short, my Lord 

 Jardinier, but that she remembers how nearly you 

 knocked her doAvn this evening, and how completely 

 you forgot to ask if you had hurt her. Come, Miss 

 Merton, there is a clear space now ;" and, passing 

 his arm lightly round her waist, he swung her off into 

 the swift maze, leaving the peer discomfitted and sav- 

 age, gazing like Satan upon paradise. 



As they paused and began to talk, he suddenly saw 

 Matuschevitz's laughing face opposite, nodding to 

 them both from the other side the circle, with an arch 

 look, which at once recalled to Fairfax the conversa- 

 tion before dinner. 



Mary nodded, and beckoned to him with her fan. 

 ** He is a friend of yours I know," she said half apol- 

 ogetically, "Lady Cheshire told me so. How odd 



