slender throat, and exclaimed, "Well, Miss, I never saw either of the Miss Falconers look nicer than you do," Evelyn turned to the glass, and beheld her transformed figure, for the first time in her life, in a ball-dress. Taking her handkerchief, and fan, and gloves, and wrapping herself in the delicate mantle which Mrs. Falconer had bought for her, she ran down the staircase, and found the rest of the party in the drawing-room waiting for the arrival of the carriage.

"Well, Evy, you do mamma credit," exclaimed Mary. "How nice you look; your dress suits you exactly!"

Mrs. Falconer said nothing, but the way and the smile with which she scanned Evelyn, and the kiss with which she concluded, was the greatest possible proof of her approbation.

The carriage drove to the door in a few minutes, and Mrs. Falconer and the three girls (for Mr. Falconer had a particular dislike to dancing parties) shivering with the intense cold, made the best of their way to it. It was not a long drive, but the cold moonlight shining on the frosty branches of the trees looked wintry and desolate; and the light that fell on their faces from the brilliantly lighted hall, when they reached their destination, was most welcome and agreeable.

Evelyn followed her mother and sisters with a strange feeling of dreaminess and unreality, and a half kind of wonder, whether it could be the simple, shy school-girl of three weeks ago, that was passing through that lofty hall in tulle and diamonds, with as free a step and composed bearing, as if she had been walking in the narrow lanes round Redbourn, with no one but Georgina Berkeley by her side.

They were ushered through the spacious entrance hall, into a small disrobing room, and then into a larger one where tea was going on. Augusta and

Mary could scarcely wait to take a single cup tea, for the sound of a spirited galop reached the ears, and they were impatient to be joining in i Mrs. Falconer seemed fully to enter into their feel ings, and did not detain them long, and Evelyn be gan for the first time to feel a little nervous, a they followed the powdered footman through moderate-sized ante-room, deliciously scented by choice, hot-house plants, which were arranged i groups on either side, into the ball-room, and hear their names announced in a loud voice, "Mrs. and the Misses Falconer." But there was no room for nervousness; Mrs. Kynaston met them, all affa bility, and Mr. Kynaston with his usual gracious politeness, and Harriet was enchanted that they were come at last, but grieved that they were so late.

Augusta and Mary were almost immediately sought for to join in the polka that was just beginning, and Evelyn, who was scarcely known to any one in the room, owing to her long absence, sat quietly down by Mrs. Falconer, who was already deep in conversation with Mrs. Kynaston, and amused herself by examining the room and its occupants.

It was a long, lofty room, lighted by three immense and very handsome chandeliers, and the walls were very prettily decorated with garlands of real and artificial flowers, which Evelyn was the more interested in observing, since Augusta had assisted in manufacturing and putting them up, and had described them to her before she came. At the lower end of the room were stationed the musicians on a raised platform, while a portion of the upper end was carpeted, and covered with sofas and couches of every sort and description, for the chaperones and those of the dancers who were not popular enough to be much sought after.

Evelyn was so much engrossed in watching her sisters' movements, and in trying to guess who their partners could be, that she started when a voice close beside her begged to introduce her to a gentleman, who requested the honour of dancing the next quadrille with her. Of course she accepted, as she would have done in her confused surprise, if the person who asked her had been the very antipodes of what he was, young, handsome, and gentlemanly. As it was, she accepted his arm with no very great feeling of annoyance, and seeing the quadrille was already forming, they went and secured places opposite Augusta and a gentleman in a military dress, which reassured Evelyn considerably.

Mrs. Falconer was a little nervous when she saw her youngest daughter about to take a conspicuous part in a quadrille, for she had never seen her dance, and had a vague kind of dread of the instruction of the Redbourn dancing master. But the first figure proved that it was without cause ; Evelyn's graceful form, and light, girlish movements, pleased her almost as well as Augusta's more finished performance and swanlike carriage. Certainly Mrs. Falconer had some excuse for the pride that filled her heart at that moment, as her eye rested on her three fair daughters, and she said to herself that they were the prettiest and most elegant girls in the room. If that same feeling had but taught her to take the same pains in training and adorning their hearts and minds, that she had spent on their bodies, instead of not blaming her, how much should we have praised and respected her!

She was not therefore much surprised when, about half an hour afterwards, Evelyn came eagerly towards her leaning on a partner's arm, and with sparkling eyes and a bright flush on her cheeks,

E

whispered that it was a delightful ball, and that she was engaged for the next four dances. And it was with ill-concealed satisfaction, that as Evelyn moved away again, her mother replied to the remark, "What a sweet graceful creature! Who is she, Mrs. Falconer ?"

"It is my youngest daughter; she has been at school for some years, and is only just returned."

And Evelyn herself-how was she enjoying her first ball? No one could doubt, who gazed on her bright, young face, and watched the quick, dark eyes following the movements of the gay figures that floated past her in quick succession, or that noted the restless motion of her foot, as she beat time to the inspiriting music of the band, and could hardly restrain her impatience to be again. amongst the dancers. And yet Evelyn, even in her elegant dress and drooping flowers, was any thing but a fashionable young lady. She was as unsophisticated and natural, as if she had been leading a band of village children through the mazes of a country dance. Her partner seemed to enjoy her simplicity, for he conversed with her in her own free, unaffected style, and entered warmly into her delight and admiration of all that was going on. A few minutes after, when they had sauntered into the refreshment room, and Evelyn was reflecting that ice-creams were very nice things even with snow on the ground, a voice whispered softly in her

ear,

"You lucky girl! you have got the best partner in the room; how I envy you!"

Evelyn looked quickly round and found Harriet Kynaston just behind her.

"Who is he? He was introduced to me as Mr. Lyttleton; I never heard of him before.'

"Never heard of Mr. Lyttleton ! He is the elt, son of Lord Desborough. He is the best

dancer in the room, and half the girls would give any thing to be dancing with him; but such a flirt, so take care!"

Evelyn felt a feeling of distaste come over her, when her partner again offered her his arm, and proposed that having succeeded in cooling themselves they should go and get warm again. But Evelyn, although she enjoyed a merry conversation, had no idea of being flirted with, and her manner was more reserved and distant. That Mr. Lyttleton was the son of a baron, was no more to her than if he had been nameless and penniless in the world, scarcely so much perhaps, as in the latter case her sympathies would have been enlisted in his favour.

Meanwhile, Augusta was dancing almost every other dance with the handsome young officer in a military dress, that Evelyn had danced her first quadrille vis-à-vis to. She began to wonder who he could be, and asked her next partner whether he could tell her. He had not caught the name of the young lady with whom he was dancing, and was consequently more communicative than he would have been had he known that she was

Augusta Falconer's sister. "That is Captain Edgar Kynaston, very handsome, is he not? Like his father, that fine old gentleman talking to the band master. Yes, very handsome, and very gentlemanly, but tremendously fast. He runs through a pretty sum every year, I have heard, and is always in debt, which his father has to clear off. Last year Mr. Kynaston paid away a fortune for him, I believe, but he is so good humoured and agreeable that every one likes him. His mother and sister dote on him."

"Is he living here ?" asked Evelyn, wishing Augusta would not dance quite so much with him.