Drake's face grew expressionless in an instant.
--"Sir Richard--or--was it Sir Joseph--Blake? He took the first for
shorthorns in seventy-eight."
Drake drew a sigh of relief.
"No relation of mine, Sir William, I regret," he said.
"No? Same name, too. Funny! But there are a good many Blakes. So you're
going to run off with the belle of Shorne Mills, eh? Lucky fellow!"
With a chuckle he ambled off to his wife, to be sent to some one else,
and Drake bent to Nell.
"Come!" was all he said, and he put his arm round her. The floor was
good, the band from the garrison town knew its business, and Nell----Was
he surprised that she should dance so well? Was not every ordinary
movement of hers graceful? But the fact that she could dance like an
angel, as he put it to himself, did not make his love for her any the
less or his pride in her diminish, be certain. He himself had been the
best dancer in his regiment, and this, his first waltz with the girl he
adored, sent the blood spinning through his veins.
"Aren't we in step rather--nicely?" she whispered, trying to speak
casually, but failing utterly; for the joy that throbbed in her heart
made it impossible for her to keep her voice steady. "Oh, Drake, I--I
was afraid that I might not be able to dance, it is so long--ever so
long--since----Why, this is my first real ball, and I am dancing with
you! And how well you waltz! But you have danced so often--this is not
your first ball!"
He glanced at her with a pang of uneasiness, but her eyes shone up at
him innocent of any other meaning than the simplest one, innocent of any
doubt of him, any question of his past.
"He would be a rank duffer who couldn't dance with you, Nell," he said.
Her hand tightened on his with the faintest pressure, and she closed her
eyes with a happy sigh.
"If it could only go on forever!" was her thought; and she prayed that
no other man might want her to dance, for a long time.
She would have liked to sit out the dances she could not have with
Drake, to sit and watch him. And she would not be jealous. Why should
she be? Was he not her very own, her sweetheart, the man who loved her?
The waltz came to an end all too soon, and as Drake led her to a seat,
young Maltby approached her with two young fellows. She was the
prettiest girl in the room, though she was the simplest dressed, and the
men were anxious to secure her.