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Klingender had designs on the peace of a certain personage, no one less than the chief justice of a neighbouring colony, a well-preserved dignified widower then on a visit to Government House; and it was popularly reported (supposing this affaire de cœur came to a satisfactory point) that Miss Klingender intended to marry him out of hand—the experience of the family with Adeline’s variations having caused them to lose all confidence in a preliminary time of betrothal. However this might turn out in the end, the mere supposition gave an extra spark of éclat to the ball; and all the “nobility and gentry” for twenty miles round poured into the garden entrance on this rose-scented night of early summer. The ball was given in honour of a new house, just completed; and very stately and hospitable the wide hall looked as the entering guests filled it up for the house-warming. The Klingenders had sacrificed everything to this apartment. People said it was so like them, in a tone of disparagement; but the general effect was undoubtedly very successful. The lofty vaulted ceiling was ribbed and panelled with native cedar of satiny texture, and yellow as a sunflower in colouring. At one end a well-designed spiral staircase rose in graceful lightness into a recessed gallery; at the other a fine