"'What! sitting out still? You should be more lively, child! Men don't
like dancing with dummies.'

"When her dress had whisked past me I looked up and saw him again, but
at that moment he sharply turned his back on me and walked into the
card-room. I was sitting still when he came out again with Mr. Topham.
The music had just struck up, the couples were gathering; he was going
to dance then. I looked down at my bouquet with tears in my eyes, and
was trying hard to subdue my folly and to count the petals of a white
camellia, when Mr. Topham's voice close by me said--

"'Miss Dorothy Lascelles, may I introduce Mr. Manners to you?' and in
two seconds more my hand was in his arm, and he was saying in a voice as
commonplace as if the world had not turned upside down--

"'I think it is Sir Roger.'

"It is a minor satisfaction to me to reflect that, for once in my life,
I was right. I did talk to Mr. George Manners. The first thing I said
was--

"'I am very much obliged to you for picking up my fan.' To which he
replied (if it can be called a reply)--

"'I wish I had known sooner that you were Miss Lascelles' sister.'

"I said, 'Did you not see her with me on the stairs?' and he answered--

"'I saw no one but you.'