Mrs. Dorriman Volume Iii Part 19

Tears rose in her eyes, and, turning to Mr. Bott, she said--

"I do not feel well. Will you take me to Lady Lyons?"

He obeyed in silence, so deeply offended with her for her manner, showed evident want of appreciation or his dancing, that he made no effort to persuade her to have some refreshment instead, and bowing, turned away immediately.

"Let us go home, Lady Lyons; I am so tired."

"And have no supper! I have been longing to have something to eat. I declare, sitting on this hard bench and doing penance, makes one desperately hungry; and I am here on your account, my dear."

"How can we go to supper without any one to take us?"

"We can go by ourselves--several people have done it already--do come."

Just as Grace was complying with her request, she was stopped by Sir Albert Gerald, who brought a young man--a very young man--up to Grace, and introduced him.

"I am coming to claim a dance soon," he said; "I saw you suffering martyrdom with poor little Bott. It was very good of you to give him a dance."

"I could not help myself," said Grace, her spirits restored immediately by this change in her prospects of enjoyment; "he was the only person introduced to me."

"Bott always manages to find a new victim," said the man introduced by Sir Albert--a Mr. Powis. "Do you want to have supper? Oh! I see, the old lady does. Come along, Gerald; we will have supper all together," and Lady Lyons was soon as perfectly happy as she could be while half dead from want of sleep.

CHAPTER VII.

The appearance of Sir Albert Gerald on the scene of action had a magical effect upon Grace. Every trace of fatigue vanished. She was once again bright, happy, careless, and full of enjoyment; once again the music charmed her, and once again she was glad to be there.

Supper over, Sir Albert found a more comfortable seat for Lady Lyons, and introduced her to a lady sitting there, who eyed her smart clothes with a little suspicion till the d.u.c.h.ess addressed a few kind words to her, when she discovered immediately that they had much in common.

Lady Lyons indeed was overflowing with content to find some one to talk to, after prolonged silence, in the first place; and, in the next, to discover that they had been disappointed in the same doctor, liked the same food, and had the same symptoms; this made the ball enjoyable indeed, and she did not care now how long Grace stayed.

In the meantime Grace realised her dreams; she floated round the room, though her appearance was a little marred by the peculiar position of her head and a certain stiffness in her action.

"You must trust more to me and be a little less timid," said Mr. Powis, when he, in his turn, took her round the room; "one can see you are out of practice."

Grace did not tell _him_ it was quite her first ball.

She danced without stopping; she would not take it quietly; she did want this one ball to be full of happiness, and she was encouraged by the laughing compliments of young Powis, who, himself a noted athlete and in excellent condition, could have danced for hours, and, to use his own expression, "not turn a hair."

Grace's lips got very white, and Sir Albert more than once remonstrated with her and with her partner.

"Has Gerald got anything to do with you?" he asked, with some temper.

"What makes him interfere?"

"I am sure I don't know," Grace answered with a ghastly smile; "but you see I don't mind. Let us go on."

"What a brick you are!" he said, as they once more started. Arrived at the end of the long room, there was suddenly a great commotion, and Mr.

Powis was shocked to find his "brick" of a partner fall back in a perfectly dead faint, in the arms of some of those lookers-on always standing about in a ball-room.

She was quickly carried into a small sitting-room, where they scattered one or two people holding interesting conversations there.

There was one chief idea present to every one, the d.u.c.h.ess must not be disturbed and the ball not for a second interrupted.

Grace was very long coming round, and then she owned herself too ill to stay.

Lady Lyons was found without much difficulty, and the two left the brilliant scene as soon as possible.

Young Powis said something about the catastrophe to Sir Albert, who was annoyed with him.

"How could I know she was going to faint?" he said; "she seemed all right: she wanted to go on."

"She has been very ill indeed for months, and, as I sent her the invitation, I felt bound to try and prevent her from doing herself harm."

"Oh, I did not know. She goes well enough, but she hangs back and makes herself heavy; my arm aches enough now. All the same I am very sorry. I could not think why you interfered."

"If it had not been you it would have been with somebody else," and Sir Albert sprang into a hansom and disappeared.

Lady Lyons only knew that Grace was over-fatigued; she knew nothing of her having fainted, and Grace herself was quite determined to say as little as possible. Were there not several other cards waiting, offering the same enjoyment?

In the manner a stupid woman sometimes has of vexing unintentionally, poor Lady Lyons contrived to offend her a good deal.

"Really, my dear, you cannot be grateful enough to that nice Sir Albert Gerald. But for him you and I would have had no supper, no dancing, and a very dull evening; and he hunted up a partner for you as well as dancing with you himself. I a.s.sure you he took a lot of trouble about it."

"Mr. Powis asked to be introduced to me."

"Did he, my dear? Why, what a humbug he must be! I heard him myself say to Sir Albert, '_I know too many girls already; do let me off!_' and Sir Albert said, 'Nonsense,' and walked him up to you, and then he pretended to wish it himself."

"At any rate Sir Albert said, 'Mr. Powis would like to be introduced to you,'" and Grace was red with anger and mortification.

"My dear, I think they always say that. I heard it said so often near me."

Grace was silent. She had thought that this one man had been attracted by her, forgetting that in a great crowd there must be that undeniable _something_ to be at all noticed.

Her next ball was a great mortification to her. She saw Mr. Powis, he asked her how she was, hoped she was better, and did _not_ ask her to dance; more than this, he expressed surprise at her coming to a ball again.

"I should have thought you would have funked it, Miss Rivers. I shall feel quite nervous till I see you going home, you know."

Grace was furious.

She and poor Lady Lyons sat on unnoticed. They went away when they were tired and crept into the supper-room.

All the servants of the establishment were drawn up in a phalanx in the hall in splendid liveries, and the supper--done by contract--was very bad, and the waiters worse. They sat very forlorn, getting no attention, and retreated, nearly worn out, and having the greatest difficulty in getting their carriage, none of the liveries choosing to face a drizzling rain and call it up. After standing very long in a terrible draught, some one asked the name, and "Lady Lyons's carriage, no servant!" was shouted up and down the street.

Grace burst out laughing, but Lady Lyons, who saw nothing funny in any part of the evening's entertainment, subsided in a heap in the corner of the brougham and wept.

In spite of this, Grace persisted in going to the few things offered her.