Volume I Part 58 (1/2)
Indeed they could now plainly hear the sound of excellent hted s of the first story one could perceive here and there so by
Ere Clary could answer, the porter appeared and opened the gates, asking the pleasure of the cavalcade
”Tell your master,” said Clary, imperiously, ”that I wish to speak to him at once”
”Oh, dear, that is impossible,” stuttered the servant, stupefied; ”the office is closed, and will only be opened again to-ht o'clock”
The porter was now ready to lock the gates again, but John had already, at a wink froood or bad, they had to be left open
”Please ask your h to come down at once,” said Mademoiselle Ellis, pere to the ball guests?” asked the man, shyly
”Ah, is there a ball in the house?”
”Yes, hter in e to-day; if, then, mademoiselle is invited?”
”No”
”Then mademoiselle came upon business matters?”
”Yes, indeed”
”Then I am really sorry that I cannot announce mademoiselle; my orders are very strict”
”You refuse to obey ret very much, but--”
”In this case IBack!”
Ere the frightened porter could hinder it, Clary had given the horse the spurs and they crossed the threshold Madaeously, and then they stopped in the midst of the vestibule, ornas of the richest and rarest description A number of lackeys felt perplexed when they perceived so unexpectedly the beautiful horses stepping on the carpets placed in the fore-court; some dozens of hands were stretched out in order to stay the horses, but they played a wrong game
Not in vain was an ancestor of Miss Clary victorious in a corandfather as well as her uncle had manfully subdued Tippoo Sahib, and her father had carried the victory at the last Derby With her horsewhip she frightened the intruders, and Clary gave her horse the spurs again; in a overness rode upstairs! In the hall where the ball was given the _elite_ of the ether; all the notables which the English colony of that place could h office, and also the lad to attend the e feast of the house of Mortimer & Co Just now the sounds of a quadrille coe themselves for the occasion, when the lackey in attendance was pushed aside and a horse's head looked inquisitively into the ball-room
It was a horse, surely and truly a horse--there was no doubt about that!
The ani head into the ball-roo eye rested quite astonished upon the elegant company; who also, aleneral standstill
The lady of the house broke into shrieks, while Mortimer with his hands prevented further intrusion
And yet what he saas after all not so terrible, for an exquisitely beautiful young lady sat gracefully on the four-footed intruder, and a pair of provocative eyes shone brightly under a riding hat ornamented with rich feathers
The wife of Lot, however, could not have been more torpid than the company in Palais Mortimer, especially when behind the first horse's head a second one appeared, and Madaht he was drea-school?
Miss Ellis did not give him much time to become horrified; she bowed politely before the banker, and said:
”Mr Mortimer, if you please, I have to speak to you!”
Well, although the banker was an Englishman he was not a friend of horses, and while he with some anxiety looked at the splendid horse and its rider, Clary's aniot its manners so far that it commenced without the least ceremony to scrape upon the heavy carpet as if it were in Hyde Park or Rotten Row, and also Madalected the rules of etiquette in that manner that the trainers of his youth deserve punish only partly fulfilled their duty