In the dance their raised hands met again. “You see me, you speak to me at last,” he said ardently. “That other, that cold brother of the snows, that paladin and dream knight that you yourself made and dubbed him me,--he has gone, Audrey; nay, he never was! But I myself, I am not abhorrent to you?” “Oh,” she answered, “it is all dark! I cannot see--I cannot understand”-- The time allotted to minuets having elapsed, the musicians after a short pause began to play an ancient, lively air, and a number of ladies and gentlemen, young, gayly dressed, and light of heart as of heels, engaged in a country dance. When they were joined by Mr. Marmaduke Haward and his shameless companion, there arose a great rustling and whispering. A young girl in green taffeta was dancing alone, wreathing in and out between the silken, gleaming couples, coquetting with the men by means of fan and eyes, but taking hands and moving a step or two with each sister of the dance. When she approached Audrey, the latter smiled and extended her hand, because that was the way the lady nearest her had done. But the girl in green stared coldly, put her hand behind her, and, with the very faintest salute to Mr. Marmaduke Haward, danced on her way. For one moment the smile died on Audrey’s lips; then it came resolutely back, and she held her head high. The men, forming in two rows, drew their rapiers with a flourish, and, crossing them overhead, made an arch of steel under which the women must pass. Haward’s blade touched that of an old acquaintance. “I have been leaning upon the back of a lady’s chair,” said the latter gruffly, under cover of the music and the clashing steel,--“a lady dressed in rose color, who’s as generous (to all save one poor devil) as she is fair. I promised her I would take her message; the Lord knows I would go to the bottom of the sea to give her pleasure! She says that you are not yourself; begs that you will--go quietly away”-- An exclamation from the man next him, and a loud murmur mixed with some laughter from those in the crowded room who were watching the dancers, caused the gentleman to break off in the middle of his message. He glanced over his shoulder; then, with a shrug, turned to his vis-a-vis in white satin. “Now you see that ’twill not answer,--not in Virginia. The women--bless them!--have a way of cutting Gordian knots.”