If I was madly jealous of her, I felt the most overwhelming delight in the praises bestowed upon her beauty and her gracefulness. Perhaps the consciousness that I was a mere boy, and that thus a freedom might be used towards me that would have been reprehensible with one older, led her to treat me with a degree of intimacy that was positively captivating; and before our third waltz was over, I was calling her Pauline, and she calling me Digby, like old friends.
"Isn't that boy of Norcott's going it to-night?" I heard a man say as I swung past in a polka, and I turned fiercely to catch the speaker's eye, and show him I meant to call him to book.
"Eccles, your pupil is a credit to you!" cried another.
"I'm a Dutchman if that fellow does n't rival his father."
"He 'll be far and away beyond him," muttered another; "for he has none of Norcott's crotchets,--he's a scamp 'ur et simple.'"
"Where are you breaking away from me, Digby?" said Pauline, as I tried to shake myself free of her.
"I want to follow those men. I have a word to say to them."
"You shall do no such thing, dearest," muttered she. "You have just told me I am to be your little wife, and I 'm not going to see my husband rushing into a stupid quarrel."
"And you are mine, then," cried I, "and you will wear this ring as a betrothal? Come, let me take off your glove."
"That will do, Digby; that's quite enough for courtesy and a little too much for deference," whispered Eccles in my ear; for I was kissing her hand about a hundred times over, and she laughing at my raptures as an excellent joke. "I think you 'd better lead the way to supper."
Secretly resolving that I would soon make very short work of Mr. Eccles and his admonitions, I gave him a haughty glance and moved on. I remember very little more than that I walked to the head of the table and placed Pauline on my right I know I made some absurd speech in return for their drinking my health, and spoke of us and what _we_--Pauline and myself--felt, and with what pleasure we should see our friends often around us, and a deal of that tawdry trash that conies into a brain addled with noise and heated with wine. I was frequently interrupted; uproarious cheers at one moment would break forth, but still louder laughter would ring out and convulse the whole assembly. Even addled and confused as I was, I could see that some were my partisans and friends, who approved of all I said, and wished me to give a free course to my feelings; and there were others--two or three--who tried to stop me; and one actually said aloud, "If that boy of Nor-cott's is not suppressed, we shall have no supper."