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the ball."
    "Mama, could we not—I hardly feel up to it. We have gone to six balls in six days. I'm exhausted!"
    "Not another word on the subject, missy," said Mrs. Presleigh sternly. She glanced at the ormolu clock on the mantelpiece and sighed in exasperation.
    When Minnie had finished with Belinda's hair she started on Mrs. Presleigh's.
    "I'll wait downstairs, Mama," said Belinda with resignation. These balls were anything but joyful to her. She invariably adorned the wall, along with the chaperones and matrons.
    "There is no joy in dressing Belinda," said Mrs. Presleigh with a loud sigh. "Do you remember, Minnie, what delight we took in dressing my darling Roselle?"
    "Ah, Ma'am, but there was a beauty," said Minnie, "and not a one to touch her in several counties."
    "Why our Lord took her, I shall never understand, Minnie."
    Minnie said nothing and concentrated on Mrs. Presleigh's hair. Soon they were all ready and ensconced in the large town chaise for the sixth time that week, on the way to the ball, one at Lord Algerton's mansion in Grosvenor Square.
    Belinda, dressed in virginal white with ivory Venetian lace at the sleeves and a cape of the same cloth, hunched inside the costly cape and saw the evening ahead as a punishment to be endured. She glanced out at the passing scenery and saw instead the crawling hours ahead as dance after dance in which she would not participate. Only the music would divert her, but even this was not to be enjoyed in calm but under the tension of pleasing her mother.
    "Here we are," said her mother.

    * * * * *

    "Well, there he is, arrived at last," said Mrs. Presleigh to her Aunt Jenny, and without turning, Belinda knew whom Mrs. Presleigh referred to. She felt a thrill run through her like a bolt of lightning even without gazing at the beloved face of her dreams.
    "Come, Belinda, let us stroll around the ballroom."
    Belinda blushed to the roots of her hair. Whenever her mother said those words Belinda knew that it was to cast out her net to trap an unsuspecting young man into dancing with Belinda.
    She closed her eyes, praying to God that it would not be to  him  that she would be pushed to. She could bear anything but that. She would rather be dead and buried and have become a banquet for the worms, than have her mother force the Earl of Berrington into dancing with her.
    And that was exactly what Mrs. Presleigh intended as she neared her quarry, and nodding her lavender turban coquettishly, accosted Lord Berrington.
    Belinda noticed he was in conversation with Lord Wilbur, his best friend and of about the same age as he, and his neighbor on the opposite side from the Presleighs.
    But Lord Berrington was experienced in outmaneuvers, surprising even his friend, Lord Wilbur, who raised his eyebrows at the quickness with which Lord Berrington acted. Berrington turned without a glance at Belinda, and murmuring his apologies to Mr. Presleigh informed her he was on his way to greet a friend who was waiting for him in the library. Belinda blushed furiously at the obvious lie but her embarrassment went unnoticed, as both men quit their sphere with such practiced ease as to leave Mrs. Presleigh breathless.
    This was the first of several such episodes during the long evening.
    Blushing to the roots of her hair, Belinda saw her mother stand directly in the path of a young man in uniform, whom she recognized as Captain Wesneye, having been introduced to him at another ball. The light brows above his washed-out eyes shot up as Mrs. Presleigh, unbelievably, entwined her arm in his. His color rose, making the freckles on his face more angrily obvious and as Mrs. Presleigh directed him almost by force to Belinda. Forced to dance now with Belinda, he stared at her resentfully.
    Wesneye, his arm around Belinda, turned his scorn to loathing. He had been on his way toward a girl he had had his eye on all evening when he was cut off by Mrs. Presleigh and was now forced to dance with Belinda. Mrs.