“Oh,” she said, “not because it is the fashion with a certain sort of young man, for I don’t suppose you would--” she meant to say “know,” in her disdain, but moved by some better feeling, said instead “care. But I should not think you were fond of dancing,” she said, pressing firmly upon the two bass keys. “You think,” said Archie, emboldened by the fact that she could not see him, “that I don’t look much like dancing. And it’s true. I am not good at it. Marion is, though,” he said after a little pause. “And what has that got to do with you?” “Oh!” he said surprised. Then after a pause, “I would naturally like her to be pleased.” “You would naturally--like her to be pleased?” Rosamond ceased her playing and turned right round upon the music stool, facing him. But the light of the candles was now entirely behind her, shining upon the ribbons of her sash--shining a line of colour beyond her white figure, but leaving her countenance invisible as before. “Why?” she said after an interval, “Why?” “Why?” “Yes, yes, why? Don’t I speak plain? Why? I want to know why?” “But there is no why to it,” said Archie, “it is just so.” She sat dark against the light and thought over this proposition for some time. “Well,” she said at length, “but you are inconsistent. You go against your father in everything, and this lady--who is so out of place here--” “Why,” said Archie hotly, “is she so much out of place here?” “Oh!” said Rosamond, and turning round again she burst into a loud heroic tuneful strain, filling the still room with a clamour of sound. In a few minutes more she had changed into a waltz. Then there occurred a complete transformation scene. Eddy jumped up from his seat by Mrs. Rowland, and snatched or seemed to snatch Marion from her chair, and the pair began to fly and flout about the room, as lightly as a pair of birds. Eddy Saumarez was not an elegant cavalier, but he danced very well, and Marion had not done herself more than justice when she said that she was “very good at it.” They threaded the intricacies of the furniture with the greatest lightness and ease, and whirled from dark to light and from light to dark, from where Mrs. Rowland sat looking on with a smile in the full revelation of a large lamp, to where Archie sat unseen in his corner. Rosamond never turned her head but played on, varying the tune with an _esprit_ which her brother followed, ducking and anon sweeping on the light figure of the girl with all the art of an accomplished performer. Archie taken completely by surprise at first, watched them with a vague sensation of pleasure in the same, which was against all his prepossessions. The sudden indignation in his mind died out. The novelty and suddenness of the movement beguiled him out of himself. There appeared suddenly at the open door while the dancers still went on, all preliminary sound being drowned by the music, the jovial and ruddy countenances of Rowland and his friend, who stood