But all the same--well, there, I won't say more if you are sure there is nothing between you." "I have the best of reasons for saying so," said Stafford, carelessly, and with a touch of colour in his face.

"But it's all dashed nonsense! The women always think there's something serious going on if you dance twice with a girl, or sit and talk to her for half an hour." "Right!" said Howard, rising.

"There's the bell!" As Howard had said, there was an air of suppressed excitement about the people; and it was not confined to the financiers who clustered together in the hall and discussed and talked in undertones, every now and then glancing up the stairs down which Sir Stephen would presently descend.

Most of the other guests, though they had no direct and personal interest in the great scheme, more or less had heard rumours and come within reflective radius of the excitement; as for the rest, who knew nothing or cared less for Sir Stephen's railway, they were in a pleasant condition of excitement over the coming dance.
Stafford, as he stood in the hall talking about the night's programme to Bertie--who had been elected, by common and tacit consent, master of the ceremonies--saw Maude Falconer descending the stairs.

She was even more exquisitely dressed than usual; and Stafford heard some of the women and men murmur admiringly and enviously as she swept across the hall in her magnificent ball-dress; her diamonds, for which she was famous, glittering in her hair, on her white throat, and on her slender wrists.