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178 them. There was not a shadow of consciousness in his manner. He stopped to salute Mrs. Jem and engage her for a set of Lancers. Yes, he had been dining at Government House. He had thought that Miss Valliant might be with Lady Horace. He bowed ceremoniously to Elsie. "How charming Lady Waveryng was, and how nice to see her so devoted already to Lady Horace; though of course she was certain to be that."

Was it Blake who was uttering these banalities? Elsie waited. He had not yet asked her to dance. Trant was hovering near, watching her with jealous eyes, and now he pushed himself forward. "Miss Valliant, this is my dance."

Elsie looked at her card. It had got pretty well filled already. Frank Hallett's name was down several times, and the Bank clerks had been given a sop apiece, and the more important dancing men—the unmarried members of the Assembly and some strangers from a neighbouring colony, had each set down their initials. But Elsie had kept some blanks, on which she had placed a hieroglyph of her own. "No, you have made a mistake. It is the next one. This is a galop. They are not keeping to the programme."

"Oh, they won't do that until the great people come," said Blake. "And here they are, and we stewards must go and receive them."

The band struck up "God save the Queen." There was a little confusion at the entrance, and presently the Governor's fine head appeared above the blue collar of his uniform and Lady Waveryng's tiara of diamonds at his shoulder. "How handsome she is, and how like Lord Horace!" murmured Mrs. Jem. The Leichardtstonians wondered that they had not thought more of Lord Horace, and a pang shot through Lady Garfit. Oh, why hadn't she managed to marry him to Rose! Lady Waveryng's diamonds and aristocratic head seemed the visible symbol of poor little Ina Gage's unmerited social advancement. Lady Waveryng had an air and an aplomb that could only belong to an aristocrat. And she was so simple and so unaffected, and