.

A CHANCE ACQUAINTANCE.
The pride that prompts the bitter jest.
A space had with some difficulty been cleared at the upper end of an aristocratic London drawing-room, and with considerable enthusiasm Miss Fitzmannering pranced into the middle of it.

Miss Fitzmannering had kindly allowed herself to be persuaded to do "only a few steps" of her celebrated skirt-dance.

Miss Eline Fitzmannering officiated at the piano, and later on, while they were brushing their hair, they quarrelled because she took the time too quickly.
The aristocratic assembly looked on with mixed feelings, and faces suitable to the same.

The girls who could not skirt-dance yawned behind their fans--gauze preferred, because the Fitzmannerings could see through gauze if they could not see through anything else.