_Miss Niphet._. Then you may call me Alice. But once more, let go my hand. _Lord Curryfin._ My hand, is it not? _Miss Niphet._. Yours, when you claim it. _Lord Curryfin._ Then thus I seal my claim. He kissed her hand as respectfully as was consistent with 'masterless passion'; and she said to him, 'I will not dissemble. If I have had one wish stronger than another--strong enough to exclude all others--it has been for the day when you might be free to say to me what you have now said. Am I too frank with you?' _Lord Curryfin._ Oh, heaven, no! I drink in your words as a stream from paradise. He sealed his claim again, but this time it was on her lips. The rose again mantled on her cheek, but the blush was heightened to damask. She withdrew herself from his arms, saying, 'Once for all, till you have an indisputable right.' CHAPTER XXXI A TWELFTH-NIGHT BALL--PANTOPRAGMATIC COOKERY--MODERN VANDALISM--A BOWL OF PUNCH sic erimus cuncti, postquam nos auferet Orcus: ergo vivamus, dura licet esse bene. So must we be, when ends our mortal day: Then let us live, while yet live well we may. _Trimalchio, with the silver skeleton: in_ Petronius: c. 34. Twelfth-night was the night of the ball. The folding-doors of the drawing-rooms, which occupied their entire breadth, were thrown wide open. The larger room was appropriated to grown dancers; the smaller to children, who came in some force, and were placed within the magnetic attraction of an enormous twelfth-cake, which stood in a decorated recess. The carpets had been taken up, and the floors were painted with forms in chalk{1} by skilful artists, under the superintendence of Mr. Pallet. The library, separated from all the apartments by ante-chambers with double doors, was assigned, with an arrangement of whist-tables, to such of the elder portion of the party as might prefer that mode of amusement to being mere spectators of the dancing. Mr. Gryll, with Miss Ilex, Mr. MacBorrowdale, and the Reverend Dr. Opimian, established his own quadrille party in a corner of the smaller drawing-room, where they could at once play and talk, and enjoy the enjoyment of the young. Lord Curryfin was Master of the Ceremonies. 1 These all wear out of me, like forms with chalk Painted on rich men's floors, for one feast-night: says Wordsworth, of 'chance acquaintance,' in his neighbourhood.--Miscellaneous Sonnets, No. 39.