»Is it difficult to make Miss Harleth understand her power?« Here Grandcourt
had turned to Mrs. Davilow, who, smiling gently at her daughter, said -
    »I think she does not generally strike people as slow to understand.«
    »Mamma,« said Gwendolen, in a deprecating tone, »I am adorably stupid, and
want everything explained to me - when the meaning is pleasant.«
    »If you are stupid, I admit that stupidity is adorable,« returned
Grandcourt, after the usual pause, and without change of tone. But clearly he
knew what to say.
    »I begin to think that my cavalier has forgotten me,« Gwendolen observed
after a little while. »I see the quadrille is being formed.«
    »He deserves to be renounced,« said Grandcourt.
    »I think he is very pardonable,« said Gwendolen.
    »There must have been some misunderstanding,« said Mrs. Davilow. »Mr.
Clintock was too anxious about the engagement to have forgotten it.«
    But now Lady Brackenshaw came up and said, »Miss Harleth, Mr. Clintock has
charged me to express to you his deep regret that he was obliged to leave
without having the pleasure of dancing with you again. An express came from his
father the archdeacon: something important: he was obliged to go. He was au
désespoir.«
    »Oh, he was very good to remember the engagement under the circumstances,«
said Gwendolen. »I am sorry he was called away.« It was easy to be politely
sorrowful on so felicitous an occasion.
    »Then I can profit by Mr. Clintock's misfortune?« said Grandcourt. »May I
hope that you will let me take his place?«
    »I shall be very happy to dance the next quadrille with you.«
    The appropriateness of the event seemed an augury, and as Gwendolen stood up
for the quadrille with Grandcourt, there was a revival in her of the exultation
- the sense of carrying everything before her, which she had felt earlier in the
day. No man could have walked through the quadrille with more irreproachable
ease than Grandcourt; and the absence of all eagerness in his attention to her
suited his partner's taste. She was now convinced that he meant to distinguish
her, to mark his admiration of her in a noticeable way; and it began to appear
probable that she would have it in her power to reject him, whence there was a
pleasure in reckoning up the advantages which would make her rejection splendid,
and in giving Mr. Grandcourt his utmost value. It