The room filled with gaiety
and movement: Mr Milburn, sidling dramatically along the
wall to escape the rotatory couples, admonished Mr
Murchison to get a partner. He withdrew himself from the
observation of Miss Dora and Mr Winter, and approached
a young lady on a sofa, who said "With very great pleasure."
When the dance was over he re-established the young lady
on the sofa and fanned her with energy. Looking across
the room, he saw that Walter Winter, seated beside Dora,
was fanning himself. He thought it disgusting and, for
some reason which he did not pause to explore, exactly
like Winter. He had met Miss Milburn once or twice before
without seeing her in any special way: here, at home,
the centre of the little conventions that at once protected
and revealed her, conventions bound up in the impressive
figures of her mother and her aunt, she had a new interest,
and all the attraction of that which is not easily come
by. It is also possible that although Lorne had met her
before, she had not met him; she was meeting him now for
the first time, as she sat directly opposite and talked
very gracefully to Walter Winter. Addressing Walter
Winter, Lorne was the object of her pretty remarks. While
Mr Winter had her superficial attention, he was the bland
medium which handed her on.
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