She knew well
that now was her time for a triumph, now in this very first season of
her acknowledged beauty; and she knew also that young, good-looking
bachelor lords do not grow on hedges like blackberries. Had Lord
Lufton offered to her, she would have accepted him at once without
any remorse as to the greater glories which might appertain to a
future Marchioness of Hartletop. In that direction she was not
without sufficient wisdom. But then Lord Lufton had not offered to
her, nor given any signs that he intended to do so; and to give
Griselda Grantly her due, she was not a girl to make a first
overture. Neither had Lord Dumbello offered; but he had given
signs,--dumb signs, such as birds give to each other, quite as
intelligible as verbal signs to a girl who preferred the use of her
toes to that of her tongue. "I have not thought about it," said
Griselda, very coldly, and at that moment a gentleman stood before
her and asked her hand for the next dance. It was Lord Dumbello; and
Griselda, making no reply except by a slight bow, got up and put her
hand within her partner's arm.
"Shall I find you here, Lady Lufton, when we have done?" she said;
and then started off among the dancers. When the work before one is
dancing the proper thing for a gentleman to do is, at any rate, to
ask a lady; this proper thing Lord Lufton had omitted, and now the
prize was taken away from under his very nose.
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