'I did not think that you really would come, Mr. Desvoeux; it is so nice of you, because we are both of us far too tired to do anything but be idle, and you can amuse us.' 'You forget, Maud,' said Vernon, 'that Desvoeux may be too tired to be amusing.' 'And I,' said Felicia, with a slight shade of contempt in her tones, 'am too tired even to be amused. I feel that Mr. Desvoeux's witticisms would only fatigue me. I intend to give up balls.' 'Then,' said Desvoeux, with an air of admiring deference which Felicia felt especially irritating, 'balls will have to give up me. I should not think it in the least worth while to be a steward and to do all the horrid things one has to do--polish the floor and audit the accounts and dance official quadrilles with Mrs. Blunt--if our chief patroness chose to patronise no more. A ball without Mrs. Vernon would be a May morning without the sunshine.' 'Or a moonlight night without the moon,' said Felicia: 'Allow me to help you to a simile.' 'You see he _is_ tired,' said Vernon, 'poor fellow, and for the first time in his life in need of a pretty phrase.' 'Not at all,' said Desvoeux, with imperturbable good-nature; 'I am constantly at a loss, like the rest of the world, for words to tell Mrs. Vernon how much we all admire her. It is only fair that the person who inspires the sentiment should assist us to express it.' 'But,' cried Maud, 'you are forgetting poor me. Who is to take care of me, if you please, in the balls of the future?' 'Yes, Felicia,' said Vernon, 'you cannot abdicate just yet, I fear. As for me, I feel already far too old.' 'Then,' cried Desvoeux, 'you must look at General Beau and learn that youth is eternal. How nice it is to see him adoring Mrs. Vereker, and to remember that we, too, may be adored some thirty years to come!' 'Beau's manner is very compromising,' said Vernon; 'it is a curious trick. His first object, when he likes a lady, is to endanger her reputation.' 'Yes,' answered Desvoeux, 'he leads her with a serious air to a sofa or hides himself with her in a balcony; looks gravely into her eyes and says, "How hot it has been this afternoon!" or something equally interesting; and all the world thinks that he is asking her to elope at least.' 'His manners appear to me to be insufferable,' Felicia said, in her loftiest style; 'just the sort of familiarity that breeds contempt.'