shyness; or if he had that disabling infirmity, he concealed it. He
answered the languid questions put to him with a certain spirit that kept
up talk, and left a favourable impression of his agreeable qualities.
But the lady with whom he got on the best was one who had no daughters
out, a handsome and witty woman of the world,--Lady Frederick Coniers.

It is your first ball at Almack's then, Mr. Leslie?"

"My first."

"And you have not secured a partner? Shall I find you one? What do you
think of that pretty girl in pink?"

"I see her--but I cannot think of her."

"You are rather, perhaps, like a diplomatist in a new court, and your
first object is to know who is who."

"I confess that on beginning to study the history of my own day I should
like to distinguish the portraits that illustrate the memoir."

"Give me your arm, then, and we will come into the next room. We shall
see the different notabilites enter one by one, and observe without being
observed. This is the least I can do for a friend of Mr. Egerton's."

"Mr. Egerton, then," said Randal,--as they threaded their way through the
space without the rope that protected the dancers,--"Mr. Egerton has had
the good fortune to win your esteem even for his friends, however
obscure?"