By the time the sisters had completed the task of adorning, the whole house was one blaze of light and decoration.

They walked through the yet vacant apartments, almost lost in the universal brightness. They were soon joined by Lord L. On arrivals commencing, he gave to each an arm, and stood with them near the entrance of the first of the suit of rooms destined for the reception of company.

Crowds poured in. Lord L. felt not a little of the most amiable, and most pardonable species of pride, as each fresh party that approached evinced, either by words or expression of countenance, as the degrees of intimacy permitted, their extravagant admiration of his daughters.

The thunder of knocks, peal on peal, still echoed and re-echoed. Julia and Frances were more accustomed to that which reverberated from Skiddaw to the Screes: for though they had, as we have seen, entered some very gay circles in the country, they had not experienced any thing on this great scale before: besides, they were conscious, that they were now the especial objects of notice; and at each loud sound, they shrunk closer to their father. He felt the involuntary movement; and, in a whisper, warned them not to be foolish.

Meanwhile, the first and second reception rooms had filled to overflowing; and many of the company were finding their own way into other of the apartments. A number of people had already, for coolness, entered the ball-room; and thither we shall, for the present, accompany them.

After walking up and down for a time, some began to express impatience for the commencement of dancing; and others, to conjecture with whom Lady Julia L. would open the ball. This led to observations upon, praises by some, and criticism by others, of their youthful hostesses; for who, that is worthy of praise, can escape criticism? so true is it, that a young woman cannot, with perfect impunity, be remarkable even for her merits. No one could deny that they were beautiful; a motion to that effect was therefore carried, by a clamorous and unanimous vote, on the part of the gentlemen. A crowd pressing towards the dancing room, caused all eyes to turn in the direction whence it approached.

“Who is that leading Lady Julia L. towards the head of the room?” exclaimed one voice. “Who is Lady Julia L. going to dance with?” cried another. “Who is that Lady Julia L. is leaning on?” said a third. “Who is it? Who is it? Who is he? Who is he?” was repeated by many. “He is very handsome!” said the ladies. “Do you know him?” inquired the gentlemen. These questions were telegraphed from the outskirts of the standing group into the centre of the moving crowd, and the answer, by numerous voices, telegraphed back: “Lord Fitz-Ullin!” “Lord Fitz-Ullin!” “Lord Fitz-Ullin!”

“Did not the papers say that Fitz-Ullin had shot himself?” inquired a gentleman.

“Yes, but it was contradicted again,” observed his neighbour.

“They say it was his friend, the Captain Montgomery, one hears so much of, who shot himself,” observed a third.

“For love, was it not?” asked a young lady.

“Oh yes, of course,” drawled out her destined partner, dropping a sleepy glance out of the corner of his eye, without turning his head; for he was an exquisite; “You ladies are the cause of every mischief, you know. You drive us poor men to distraction, and then blame us for the rash actions which your own charms have caused us to commit.”

“It was not the lady’s fault!” said his partner; “she could not marry them both, you know.”

“And so she made the best division she could, you think, in accepting the one as a lover, and the other as a husband?” retorted the gentleman.

“Nonsense!” said the young lady: “but as the papers said that Captain Montgomery was the favoured lover, why should he shoot himself?”

“Cannot say, really. The quadrilles are forming; we had better take our place.”

“Lady Julia L. is vastly lovely! Is she not?” he proceeded, after they had secured their ground. The lady was wondering how Captain Montgomery, or any body else, could have been preferred to Lord Fitz-Ullin, he was so handsome; and only answered, “Yes, very pretty indeed: and what a beautiful dress she has on!”

Several sets of quadrilles were now arranged, and were on the point of commencing.

“What a very handsome young man Lord Fitz-Ullin is!” said another young lady, to an ugly, stiff, old partner; who had once, of course, been young, and, by accident, the fashion; but who, by thinking himself a prize too long, had lost both those advantages.

“Possibly,” he replied; “but I was looking at the lady. Lady Julia L. is really almost beautiful enough to tempt a man to sacrifice his liberty!”

“Can that be Lord Fitz-Ullin?” said Lady D. to a certain gay Colonel, who, emerging from the part of the crowd which had lately entered the room, approached her ladyship.

The Colonel was, or thought himself, handsome; and we hope, for his own sake, he was not mistaken; as, excepting his personal attractions, he had nothing but his half-pay; not even professional prospects, having taken the difference from whole to half-pay for the discharge of debts. His aspirations were now, therefore, limited to that last resource of the desperate—matrimony! Lady D. was a showy, rich, and not very old widow; a dasher, and a professed admirer of handsome men: on which last trait in her ladyship’s character the Colonel founded very brilliant hopes.

“I have seen Lord Ormond in his father’s life-time,” pursued Lady D.; “but I had no recollection of his being half so handsome! Is that really Lord Fitz-Ullin?”

“If your ladyship means the gentleman who is standing at the head of the first quadrille with Lady Julia L.,” replied the Colonel, “he is, undoubtedly, Lord Fitz-Ullin.”

“He is a thousand times handsomer,” said the lady, looking again, “a thousand times handsomer than I thought Lord Ormond at the time, though now I do remember thinking him a pleasing looking young man. What a difference three or four years have made (it was six or seven, but the lady did not choose to say so); he has now so much more character of countenance, and so fine a figure!”

The Colonel, not a little mortified, answered, “The fellow looks as if he were going to be hanged! and that, with such an angel for a partner, is quite unpardonable.”

“As the lady’s whole attention seems occupied by the chalking of the floor,” said Lady D., “it is no wonder she cannot animate her partner.”

“If I am any judge of physiognomy,” said the Colonel, “his Lordship’s want of animation does not proceed from want of admiration: and, as to the lady, if she does not look up and smile, she looks down and blushes; and that is quite as encouraging, you know.”

“She is certainly too demurely-looking,” persisted Lady D.

“Her adorer probably prefers,” argued the Colonel, assuming what he intended for a very graceful attitude, “possessing this monopoly of his fair enslaver’s attention, to the danger of her Ladyship’s admiring other Adonises, as might possibly be the case, were she to dispense her glances more freely.”

“Oh,” replied Lady D., with quickness, “in the case of the partner of Lord Fitz-Ullin, there can be no danger of that!”

The Colonel fell back, bit his lip, and said to a gentleman near him, in a loud and conceited tone, drawing up his eyebrows, and looking down at his own legs, “Lady D. thinks, that where Lord Fitz-Ullin appears, no one else has a chance of being looked at!—eh?”

“It is fortunate,” replied the gentleman addressed, who was also an acquaintance of her Ladyship’s, “that all ladies are not of Lady D.’s opinion. In a late very public affair his Lordship was, ’tis said, successfully rivalled by a Captain Montgomery, with whose name the papers have resounded for some time.”

“By the bye,” asked Lady D., “was it not said that Captain Montgomery, or Lord Fitz-Ullin, or somebody, had shot themselves, or something?”

A gentleman, on whose breast appeared the stars and garters of renown, now coming up, said dryly (for he too seemed of Lady D.’s coterie), “Your Ladyship is speaking of Captain Montgomery? His wounds, you perceive, have not been mortal.”

The lady looked her want of comprehension.

“Why,” continued the man of stars, “he is now standing at the head of the first quadrille with Lady Julia L. Don’t look for a moment, or they will see that we are speaking of them.”

“I beg your pardon, sir,” interrupted the Colonel, “that is Lord Fitz-Ullin!—if you mean the gentleman who is dancing with Lady Julia L.”

“Are you personally acquainted with Lord Fitz-Ullin?” asked the Admiral, for such was the rank of the starred speaker.

“No, sir, but I saw him enter the room, and heard him announced as Lord Fitz-Ullin.”

“Then, sir, give me leave to say, that Captain Montgomery served with me when he was a lieutenant; and to repeat that he now stands at the head of the room with Lady Julia L.”

“The gentleman at the head of the room, dancing with Lady Julia L.,” said a consequential looking elderly man in black, pressing forward through the crowd, and nodding to Lady D., “is Lord Fitz-Ullin”——

“Sir?” said the Admiral, with a look of defiance.

“Yes, sir,” said the gentleman in black, smiling in the angry face of his opponent; “I had this very day the honour of dining with his Lordship at his own house, in company with the Dowager Lady Fitz-Ullin, Lady Oswald, an aunt of his Lordship, and the very beautiful young lady, whose affair has, unfortunately, been of late the subject of so much discussion.”

“Where you may have dined, sir, or with whom, are not points for me to dispute; but,” persisted our naval hero, “the gentleman dancing with Lady Julia L. is Captain Montgomery!”

“Is Lord Fitz-Ullin,” repeated the man in black: “Pray, sir, give me leave, sir, and”——

“I will give no man leave, sir, to contradict me! I have distinctly asserted that I am personally acquainted with Captain Montgomery; and that the gentleman dancing with Lady Julia L. is Captain Montgomery: whoever asserts that he is not Captain Montgomery, gives me the lie!”

“My good friend! my good friend! why so fierce?” exclaimed a new addition to the circle, offering his hand to the Admiral as he came up.

Lady D. explained the cause of dispute; and the Admiral’s friend, laughing heartily, said, “Five minutes since, I saw Lord L. present the young man now dancing with Lady Julia L. to both his daughters, as Lord Fitz-Ullin.”