Chapter 5

The bewildered Margery was led by the Baron up the steps to the
interior of the house, whence the sounds of music and dancing were
already proceeding. The tones were strange. At every fourth beat a
deep and mighty note throbbed through the air, reaching Margery's
soul with all the force of a blow.

'What is that powerful tune, sir--I have never heard anything like
it?' she said.

'The Drum Polka,' answered the Baron. 'The strange dance I spoke of
and that we practised--introduced from my country and other parts of
the continent.'

Her surprise was not lessened when, at the entrance to the ballroom,
she heard the names of her conductor and herself announced as 'Mr.
and Miss Brown.'

However, nobody seemed to take any notice of the announcement, the
room beyond being in a perfect turmoil of gaiety, and Margery's
consternation at sailing under false colours subsided. At the same
moment she observed awaiting them a handsome, dark-haired, rather
petite lady in cream-coloured satin. 'Who is she?' asked Margery of
the Baron.

'She is the lady of the mansion,' he whispered. 'She is the wife of
a peer of the realm, the daughter of a marquis, has five Christian
names; and hardly ever speaks to commoners, except for political
purposes.'

'How divine--what joy to be here!' murmured Margery, as she
contemplated the diamonds that flashed from the head of her ladyship,
who was just inside the ball-room door, in front of a little gilded
chair, upon which she sat in the intervals between one arrival and
another. She had come down from London at great inconvenience to
herself; openly to promote this entertainment.

As Mr. and Miss Brown expressed absolutely no meaning to Lady
Toneborough (for there were three Browns already present in this
rather mixed assembly), and as there was possibly a slight
awkwardness in poor Margery's manner, Lady Toneborough touched their
hands lightly with the tips of her long gloves, said, 'How d'ye do,'
and turned round for more comers.

'Ah, if she only knew we were a rich Baron and his friend, and not
Mr. and Miss Brown at all, she wouldn't receive us like that, would
she?' whispered Margery confidentially.

'Indeed, she wouldn't!' drily said the Baron. 'Now let us drop into
the dance at once; some of the people here, you see, dance much worse
than you.'

Almost before she was aware she had obeyed his mysterious influence,
by giving him one hand, placing the other upon his shoulder, and
swinging with him round the room to the steps she had learnt on the
sward.

At the first gaze the apartment had seemed to her to be floored with
black ice; the figures of the dancers appearing upon it upside down.
At last she