After supper, while the most determined of the waltzers were still spinning round to a brisk _deux temps_ of Charles d'Albert's, Clarissa was fain to tell the last of her partners she could dance no more. "I am not tired of the ball," she said; "I like looking on, but I really can't dance another step. Do go and get some one else for this waltz; I know you are dying to dance it." This was to the devoted Captain Westleigh, a person with whom Miss Lovel always felt very much at home. "With _you_," he answered tenderly. "But if you mean to sit down, I am at your service. I would not desert you for worlds. And you really are looking a little pale. Shall we find some pleasanter place? That inner room looks deliciously cool." He offered his arm to Clarissa, and they walked slowly away towards a small room at the end of the saloon; a room which Lady Laura had arranged with an artful eye to effect, leaving it almost in shadow. There were only a few wax-candles glimmering here and there among the cool dark foliage of the ferns and pitcher-plants that filled every niche and corner, and the moonlight shone full into the room through a wide window that opened upon a stone balcony a few feet above the terrace. "If I am left alone with her for five minutes, I am sure I shall propose," Captain Westleigh thought, on beholding the soft secluded aspect of this apartment, which was untenanted when he and Clarissa entered it. She sank down upon a sofa near the window, more thoroughly tired than she had confessed. This long night of dancing and excitement was quite a new thing to her. It was nearly over now, and the reaction was coming, bringing with it that vague sense of hopelessness and disappointment which had so grown upon her of late. She had abandoned herself fully to the enchantment of the ball, almost losing the sense of her own identity in that brilliant scene. But self-consciousness came back to her now, and she remembered that she was Clarissa Lovel, for whom life was at best a dreary business. "Can I get you anything?" asked the Captain, alarmed by her pallor. "Thanks, you are very kind. If it would not be too much trouble--I know the refreshment-room is a long way off--but I should be glad of a little water." "I'll get some directly. But I really am afraid you are ill," said the Captain, looking at her anxiously, scarcely liking to leave her for fear she should faint before he came back. "No, indeed, I am not ill--only very tired. If you'll let me rest here a little without talking." She half closed her eyes. There was a dizziness in her head very much like the preliminary stage of fainting. "My dear Miss Lovel, I should be a wretch to bore you. I'll go for the water this moment."