"Thane, it is quite time you too were dressed."

"Dressed for what?" he said with an astonished air.

"Why, is it possible that you have forgotten that we have an
invitation to Mrs. Grantley's tonight?"

"I recall the invitation now, but I never gave it a second thought,
nor did I suppose that you had. Did you not notice from the wording
that it was to be a dancing party. I think there must be some mistake
about it, as I never was invited before our marriage to these
parties, nor have we been since; I cannot understand why they should
ask us now."

"Why, pray, should we not be invited? It is not necessary for you to
dance, of course. We shall be obliged to go, for I have accepted the
invitation," Mrs. Eldred replied, with a nothing-further-to-be-said
air.

"I am sorry you accepted an invitation for me, without consulting me,
but I cannot go," her husband answered gravely.

"Oh fie! How old and strait-laced you are for a young man; why Dr.
Henry often went and looked on, and his daughter danced, and people
liked him all the better for it. You will be immensely unpopular if
you pursue that course. Don't you think," she continued, encouraged
by his silence, "that it savours a little of bigotry and egotism to
set one's self up to condemn an amusement that many other Christians
approve? What is your ground of objection? One would suppose that you