"You are going away quite soon, then?"

"To-morrow. But I don't wish to speak of it. I should like to-night to
last forever."

Lady Beauregard was interrupted by her neighbor.

"What has pleased you, then, so much?" said his hostess, looking up at
him. "London? Or the people in it? Or any one person in it?"

"Oh," he said, laughingly, "the whole thing. What is the use of
dissecting? It is nothing but holiday making in this place. Now, Miss
Rawlinson, are you brave? Won't you challenge the admiral to drink a
glass of wine with you? And you must include his companion--just as they
do at the city dinners--and I will join you too."

And so these old sweethearts drank to each other. And Macleod raised his
glass too; and Miss White lowered her eyes, and perhaps flushed a little
as she touched hers with her lips, for she had not often been asked to
take a part in this old-fashioned ceremony. But that was not the only
custom they revived that evening. After the banquet was over, and the
ladies had got some light shawls and gone out into the mild summer
night, and when the long marquee was cleared, and the band installed at
the farther end, then there was a murmured talk of a minuet. Who could
dance it? Should they try it?

"You know it?" said Macleod to Miss White.

"Yes," said she looking down.