He said everything he could to reassure her and make
her happy, and she soon smiled and laughed again.
‘Now, that’s what my editor would call
a Nemesis,’ said Charley.
‘Oh, that’s a Nemesis, is it?’
’Johnson was cheated into doing my work, and
getting me my supper; and then you scolded me, and
took away my appetite, so that I couldn’t eat
it; that’s a Nemesis. Johnson is avenged,
only, unluckily, he doesn’t know it, and wickedness
is punished.’
’Well, mind you put it into the Daily Delight.
But all the girls are going upstairs; pray let me
get out,’ and so Katie went upstairs again.
It was then past one. About two hours afterwards,
Gertrude, looking for her sister that she might take
her home, found her seated on a bench, with her feet
tucked under her dress. She was very much fatigued,
and she looked to be so; but there was still a bright
laughing sparkle in her eye, which showed that her
spirits were not even yet weary.
‘Well, Katie, have you had enough dancing?’
‘Nearly,’ said Katie, yawning.
‘You look as if you couldn’t stand.’
’Yes, I am too tired to stand; but still I think
I could dance a little more, only—’
‘Only what?’
‘Whisper,’ said Katie; and Gertrude put
down her ear near to her sister’s lips.
’Both my shoes are quite worn out, and my toes
are all out on the floor.’
It was clearly time for them to go home, so away they
all went.
EXCELSIOR
The last words that Katie spoke as she walked down
Mrs. Val’s hall, leaning on Charley’s
arm, as he led her to the carriage, were these—
’You will be steady, Charley, won’t you?
you will try to be steady, won’t you, dear Charley?’
and as she spoke she almost imperceptibly squeezed
the arm on which she was leaning. Charley pressed
her little hand as he parted from her, but he said
nothing. What could he say, in that moment of
time, in answer to such a request? Had he made
the reply which would have come most readily to his
lips, it would have been this: ’It is too
late, Katie—too late for me to profit by
a caution, even from you—no steadiness
now will save me.’ Katie, however, wanted
no other answer than the warm pressure which she felt
on her hand.
And then, leaning back in the carriage, and shutting
her eyes, she tried to think quietly over the events
of the night. But it was, alas! a dream, and
yet so like reality that she could not divest herself
of the feeling that the ball was still going on.
She still seemed to see the lights and hear the music,
to feel herself whirled round the room, and to see
others whirling, whirling, whirling on every side
of her. She thought over all the names on her
card, and the little contests that had taken place
for her hand, and all Charley’s jokes, and M.
de l’Empereur’s great disaster; and then
as she remembered how long she had gone on twisting
round with the poor unfortunate ill-used Frenchman,
she involuntarily burst out into a fit of laughter.
