"Oh, yes," said Mrs. Thorne, "I sent him a card when I heard he was in Boston. I have not seen him--at least since he was very young--but his mother--of course I know Mrs. Van Voorst--a little." "I don't know them at all," said Miss Morgan; "but if that's young Van Voorst, he is better looking than there is any occasion for." "He was a classmate and intimate friend of Jack's," said Mrs. Allston, loftily. "I never saw him before," said Lily, incautiously. "He only went out in a very small set in Boston," said Mrs. Allston. "I met him often, of course." "You were too young, Lily, to meet any one when he was in college," said Miss Morgan, who liked "putting down Julia Allston." "It's too bad the girls are all engaged," said the simple-minded Mrs. Freeman; "he won't have any partner." "_He_ wouldn't dance!" said Julia, too tough to feel Miss Morgan's light touches. "Very likely, as you asked him, Mrs. Thorne, he may feel that he _must_ take a turn with Ada; and when he knows that Kitty Bradstreet is with me, very likely he will ask her out of compliment to me. He will hardly ask me to dance at such a very young party as this; I don't see any of the young married set here but myself." Mr. Van Voorst stood quietly in the doorway, hardly appearing to notice anything, but when Ada Thorne's partner was called out, and she was left sitting alone, he walked across the room and sat down by her. He did not ask her to dance, but it was perhaps as great an honour to have the Van Voorst of New York sitting by her, holding her bouquet and bending over her in an attitude of devotion; and if what he said did not flatter her vanity, it touched another sentiment equally strong in Ada even at that early period of life. "Who is that girl in black, sitting with the chaperons?" "Oh, that is Lily Carey." "Why is she there?" "She is chaperoning Eleanor, her youngest sister, that girl in lilac who is on the floor now. They look alike, don't they?" "Why, she is not married?" "No, only engaged. She has been engaged a great while, and never goes to balls or anything now--only she came here with Eleanor because Mrs. Carey wanted to go to Cambridge with Susan. There are three of the Careys out; it must be a dreadful bother, don't you think so?" "To whom is she engaged?" "To a Mr. Reginald Ponsonby--an Englishman settled in Australia somewhere. They were to have been married last summer, but he had business losses. She is perfectly devoted to him. He wrote and offered to release her, but she would not hear of it. She was very much admired; don't you think her pretty?" "Will you introduce me to Miss Carey? I see Mr. Freeman is coming to ask you for a turn--will you be so kind as to present me first?"