Mrs. Bellairs shrugged her shoulders and retreated. Mr. Percy smiled
rather contemptuously.

"Do these accidents often happen?" he asked.

"Dear me! no. I never knew anything to go wrong where Elise had the
management, before. But I must go and look if they are coming."

He hurried out, but scarcely passed the doorway when the lost musicians
appeared, under the guidance of Maurice and Henry Scott. They were not,
perhaps, quite beyond suspicion as to sobriety, but there was no fear of
their being unable to do their duty reasonably well. The happy news of
their arrival being made known by the commencement of a vigorous tuning,
the doors of the dressing-rooms opened, and the ball-room began to fill.

The common opinion of Cacouna had undoubtedly been that Mr. Percy--the
Honourable Edward Percy, whose name was in the Peerage--would dance the
first quadrille with Mrs. Bellairs. But sovereigns are permitted to be
capricious, especially female ones, and the Queen of Cacouna was not
above the weaknesses of her class. Perhaps Mr. Percy--who was certainly
bored himself--bored her a little. At any rate she signified her
intention of bestowing her hand upon an elderly gentleman, the owner of
the house, to whom, as she said, they were so much indebted for his
kindness in allowing them to metamorphose it as they had done.

The gentleman, thus left at liberty to choose his own partner, found his
eyes turning naturally to Lucia; but before he had quite made up his
mind, Maurice came up to her.

"Lucia," he said, "I shall be obliged to give up my quadrille. It is a