quickest and most brilliant of waltzes, and a moment later their lithe
figures flowed away in a rhythm of motion, that from their exuberance
of feeling, was as fantastic as it was graceful.

Mr. Allen assisted his wife to her room and soon left her in an
unusually contented frame of mind to develop strategy for the coming
party. Mrs. Allen's nerves utterly incapacitated her for the care of
her household, attendance upon church, and such humdrum matters, but
in view of a great occasion like a "grand crush ball," where among the
luminaries of fashion she could become the refulgent centre of a
constellation which her fair daughters would make around her, her
spirit rose to the emergency. When it came to dress and dressmakers
and all the complications of the campaign now opening, notwithstanding
her nerves, she could be quite Napoleonic.

Her husband retired to the library, lighted a choice Havana, skimmed
his evening papers, and then as usual went to his club.

This, as a general thing, was the extent of the library's literary
uses. The best authors in gold and Russia smiled down from the black
walnut shelves, but the books were present rather as furniture than
from any intrinsic value in themselves to the family. They were given
prominence on the same principle that led Mrs. Allen to give a certain
tone to her entertainments by inviting many literary and scientific
men. She might be unable to appreciate the works of the _savants_, but
as they appreciated the labors of her masterly French cook, many
compromised the matter by eating the _petits soupers_ and shrugging
their shoulders over the entertainers.

And yet the Allens were anything but vulgar upstarts. Both husband and