The Bath Assembly Rooms are, perhaps, the best constructed in England. There is not a step or staircase throughout. Ballroom, octagon, card and tea rooms, all are on one level; and the suite is so contrived as to have four exits in the event of fire. A central cross with an octagonal vestibule adorned with columns gives access to the ballroom, great octagon, and tea-room. The whole was gilded, and sparkled with wax lights. We have advanced vast strides in illumination, but no amount of glare can compensate for the mellowness and beauty of the light that came from innumerable wax candles. Into the principal portions of the building, the servants were not admitted; but they hung about the entrance to the vestibule, and were even allowed to encroach somewhat further, to invade the vestibule itself. Jane penetrated to the pillars sustaining the entablature, and stood there, seeing the gleam of dresses as they flashed by the open door of the ballroom, and observing the dancers, who, heated or thirsty, came forth to sit or become cool, or enter the tea-room for refreshment. There were benches in the octagonal vestibule against the wall, and near where Jane stood were a couple of elderly bucks, commenting on those who swept by, or exchanging opinions on the difference in style in the woman of the present from the past. 'By the way, Gorges,' said one of these in a blue coat with brass buttons and white waistcoat, 'what is your opinion of the newcomer?' 'I should say that Audrey had slipped into Rosalind's cast clothes.' 'Ah! a case of female Christopher Sly.' 'For shame! That is not fair. There is nothing coarse about her――only rustic and piquante.' 'Piquante she is, I hear――with her tongue.' 'Do you know her father?' 'Holwood,' replied Gorges. 'Can't say I do――he is or has been in the Foreign Office. Eminently fitted for his post, I should say.' 'I hear he has come in for money, through the death of an aunt.' 'It is a deuced shame that some men have all the luck in this world and some none. Why should he come in for money and a beautiful daughter? By Gad! Look at my three rose-buds! Old and cankered every one. I can't dispose of them, because I cannot, like the Pope, offer my roses of gold.' 'I am like Henry IV. of Germany. Thank God I have none to dispose of. I find it difficult enough to dispose of myself in an easy-chair.' Jane but partially understood what was said. The allusions escaped her altogether. Turning to the girl who had accompanied her, she whispered: 'I shall never know her――never in the dress she will be wearing.' 'I will point her out to you,' said the maid. 'Here come some. The waltz is over. Stand back, they will pass this way.' 'Hang it, Gorges,' said the man in blue; 'we shall have to vacate our seats. I'd go into the cardroom, but, dem it, I dare not touch cards――I never win, never; and to lose eternally is not fun.' The maid touched Jane. 'She is coming on her father's arm.'