'Nan, how dare you!' said her mother, angrily, and glancing round at the same time. 'You may use such expressions, if you like, when you are with your brother. Pray don't disgrace the whole family when you are elsewhere.' 'Mamma, dear,' said Nan, contritely, 'it is madness, pure madness. The excitement of my first ball has got into my brain----' 'Into your what?' said her mother, with a smile. Nan, and Nan alone, could pacify her in a second. At the same moment the band began again; and somehow Nan, looking up, found before her some one who was no other than the young Lieutenant she had met at the beginning of the evening. She was somewhat bewildered by this Jack-in-the-box sort of appearance. 'I think you promised me this next dance, Miss Beresford,' said he. He was a grave-looking young man for his years--a Corsican Brother--the Ghost in _Hamlet_. She did not know what to make of him. 'I thought you had left,' she stammered. 'You have not been dancing?' 'No, I have not been dancing,' he repeated. 'I will come back to you soon, mamma,' she said, and she put her hand on his arm, and moved away with him. 'The fact is,' said he, 'I don't like much being introduced to strangers. Most girls stare at you so, with a sort of hold-off air, and it is so difficult to get on pleasant and friendly terms with them.' 'I should not have thought you were so shy,' said Nan, with an honest laugh. He flushed a little, and said-- 'If you've lived most of your life on board ship, you may feel a little bit awkward; but mind,' he added with some eagerness, 'sometimes, not often (once in half a dozen years, maybe), you meet with a girl who is quite different from the others, quite different. You know it at once from her manner, and you can make friends with her with the greatest ease, simply because she is intelligent and quick in appreciation, and not affected in her ways, or stiff.' This eager encomium passed upon an imaginary person struck Nan as being somewhat out of place; for the waltz had already begun, and she wanted to get back to her mamma: whereas this Lieutenant King seemed to wish to stand there and talk to her. 'Of course, that's special good luck for a sailor,' said he with a smile, 'to be able to make friends in a short time; for it's only a short time he has. Ashore to-day, and off to-morrow again; and what's worse, out of sight out of mind.' 'Oh, not always,' said Nan, cheerfully. 'Oh yes, it is,' he said; 'people on shore are too much concerned among themselves to think about the people away at sea. Why, you yourself now; after you leave this house to-night you will completely forget that there are such things as either ships or sailors until you come back here to another ball, and then the bunting will remind you.' 'Now there you are quite wrong,' said she firmly, 'for I see ships and sailors every day of my life.' 'Why, how is that?' he exclaimed with great interest.