and gloom, found it impossible to conceal his opinion that master was
making a fool of himself; and the rest of the company being quite as ill
matched, "Sir Roger" was performed with little grace and less
liveliness, while the Yule Log, after emitting a great deal of smoke,
sputtered out into blackness, to everybody's relief.

The end of it was, however, a little better than the beginning. As the
dancers warmed to their work, their latent enthusiasm for the exercise
was awakened; and "Sir Roger" was kept up until the fingers of the
organist, who had been engaged to play for them on a piano placed in a
corner of one of the passages, ached with the cold and with the hard
work.

When the dance was over and the party had broken up, Doreen, who had
done her best to keep up the spirits of the rest, broke down. Max met
her on her way to her room, and saw that the tears were very near her
eyes.

"What's the matter now?" said he, crossly. "You seemed all right
downstairs. I thought you and Lindsay seemed to be getting on very well
together."

"Did you? Well, you were wrong," said she, briefly, as she shut herself
into the room.




CHAPTER XVI.