For some days now he did not go near Bella Chevenix, who began to feel a little wroth at him in consequence, as she had no key as yet to what influenced Jerry. 'Their ball!' exclaimed the proud girl, petulantly; 'I am not sure that I should go, papa, to be patronised and slighted perhaps.' 'Patronised or slighted--who dare do either to you?' asked her father, with surprise. 'I shall be bored to death, I fear.' But the desire to appear where she knew she would shine prevailed over all her doubts, and she devoted all her energies to have a costume that should be second to none. Meanwhile Jerry found the impossibility of abstaining entirely from visiting the house of Mr. Chevenix, and so days of meetings in various ways passed--meetings in which their lives seemed to be mutually merged in that sweet occupation which was not quite love-making, but yet was far, far in advance of that perilous frivolity that so often leads to it called--flirtation. Yet Jerry was further now from disclosing himself than ever, and Bella seemed in no hurry for him to do so, for she was young enough--even after all she had seen of society--to shrink from a declaration, for to a girl there is something so seductive, so sweet in hovering on the brink, when she, as Bella did in her secret heart, loves the man. Cousin Emily was not slow in discovering the direction in which Jerry so often turned his horse's head, and hinted thereof to Lady Julia. 'But for the dangers my poor boy will have to encounter,' said the latter, 'I would hail with pleasure his departure to the coast of Africa, as a useful means of separating him from this most artful creature.' Meanwhile an influx of visitors and guests preluded the ball, as many came from a considerable distance. Like Goring, Jerry was in no mood for all this gaiety just then, and the latter resented that his duties as host enforced his presence at Wilmothurst, and consequent absence from Bella Chevenix. CHAPTER XX. THE FIREFLY. The red sun of a clear winter day was shining on the two chalky eminences at the embouchure of the Arques, or Bethune, and on the low tongue of land between them, whereon is situated the seaport of Dieppe in Normandy, from the church of which the coast of England can be distinctly seen, when the _Firefly_, which really was a beautiful yacht, crept slowly along on a wind under the lee of the shore, from which she was rather more than a mile distant.