said lightly, and with a miserable gesture Charles went off,
muttering, 'I hadn't thought of that. Why didn't some one tell me?'



5

That ball was to be known in Nelson Lodge as the one that killed Miss
Caroline, but Miss Caroline had her full share of pleasure out of it.
It was the custom in Radstowe to make much of Caroline and Sophia:
they were respected and playfully loved and it was not only the
middle-aged gentlemen who asked them to dance, and John and Charles
Batty were not the only young ones who had the honour of leading them
into the middle of the room, taking a few turns in a waltz and
returning, in good order, to the throne-like arm-chairs. Francis Sales
had their names on his programme, but with him they used the privilege
of old friends and preferred to talk.

'You can keep your dancing for Rose and Henrietta,' Caroline said.

'He comes too late for me,' Rose said pleasantly. He gave her
something remarkably like one of his old looks and she answered it
with a grave one. There was gnawing trouble at her heart. She had
watched his meeting with Henrietta. It had been wordless; everything
was understood. She had also seen the unhappiness of Charles Batty,
and, on an inspiration, she said to him, 'Charles, you must take pity
on an old maid. I have all these dances to give away.'

For him this dance was to be remembered as the beginning of his
friendship with Rose Mallett; but at the moment he was merely annoyed