'What is that powerful tune, sir--I have never heard anything like
it?' she said.
'The Drum Polka,' answered the Baron. 'The strange dance I spoke of
and that we practised--introduced from my country and other parts of
the continent.'
Her surprise was not lessened when, at the entrance to the ballroom,
she heard the names of her conductor and herself announced as 'Mr.
and Miss Brown.'
However, nobody seemed to take any notice of the announcement, the
room beyond being in a perfect turmoil of gaiety, and Margery's
consternation at sailing under false colours subsided. At the same
moment she observed awaiting them a handsome, dark-haired, rather
petite lady in cream-coloured satin. 'Who is she?' asked Margery of
the Baron.
'She is the lady of the mansion,' he whispered. 'She is the wife of
a peer of the realm, the daughter of a marquis, has five Christian
names; and hardly ever speaks to commoners, except for political
purposes.'
'How divine--what joy to be here!' murmured Margery, as she
contemplated the diamonds that flashed from the head of her ladyship,
who was just inside the ball-room door, in front of a little gilded
chair, upon which she sat in the intervals between one arrival and
another. She had come down from London at great inconvenience to
herself; openly to promote this entertainment.
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