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will understand Emmy as you and I do,” she said. “What if he does not like her when he learns more about her? As you say—”
    â€œâ€™Tis what marriage is all about, madam,” he said. “Have you not realized it? ’Tis about discovering unknown facets of the character and experience and tastes of one’s spouse and learning to adjust one’s life accordingly. ’Tis learning to hope that one’s spouse is doing the same thing. ’Tis something only the two persons concerned can deal with. Let us dance.” He looked toward the leader of the orchestra, raised his eyebrows, and lifted one finger.
    The music began.
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    â€œEgad,” Theodore, Lord Quinn, Luke’s maternal uncle, said to Lady Sterne, his longtime friend and lover, “but the young gels grow lovelier with every passing year. As do the mature ones. That is a fine new hairdo, I warrant you, Marj, m’dear. Takes ten years off your age.”
    â€œMercy on me,” she said, “but that would make me more than ten years too young for you, Theo.”
    He threw back his head and laughed heartily before speaking again. “So will she have him?” he asked.
    The two of them were sitting rather than dancing the opening set, which they had agreed was somewhat too lively for their aging bones. They looked across the ballroom to where Lord Powell was seated on a sofa beside Emily, talking to her despite the loudness of the music and conversation.
    â€œDo they not look splendid together?” she asked. “And her affliction really does not signify, Theo. The dear man likes to talk, and Emily is well able to listen with her eyes. I had no notion that she would dress up so fine, though she has looked well for the past number of days, I declare.”
    â€œZounds,” Lord Quinn said, “but it would be hard, Marj, to be tied to a woman who could not answer one back. One hopes that is not her chief attraction to the man. One has the notion that there is more to little Emily than receptive silence. But how is one to know what she is saying with those big eyes of hers?”
    â€œMy dear Anna has always worried about her,” Lady Sterne said, her eyes softening on the sight of her goddaughter dancing opposite her duke, her face smiling and animated. “She has always taken the full burden of her family on her own shoulders even though Royce is the head of the family. ’Twill be good for her to know that the last of her sisters is well settled. Anna can be finally and fully happy.”
    Lord Quinn patted her hand, though he did not leave his own on hers. They were ever discreet in public. “And so can you, Marj,” he said. “Anna is like the daughter you never had. You love her to distraction. I might almost feel jealous.”
    â€œBut you do not.” She turned her head to smile at him.
    â€œBut I do not,” he agreed. “I am fond of the gel m’self, Marj, and of Luke too. He has always been my favorite nephy, though one is not supposed to have favorites.”
    â€œAh, look at them,” she said, returning her attention to Emily and Lord Powell across the room. “As I live, Theo, she is smiling at him and he is dazzled enough to move back six inches. ’Tis just like my Anna’s smile, I vow. If only they can be one half as happy as Anna and Harndon.”
    Lord Quinn patted her hand again. “Leave love to take its course,” he said. “By suppertime he will have got up the courage to speak and she will have given him her answer with those eyes of hers and the announcement will have been made. Then our dear Anna will be happy, and you too. And hark ye, Marj, m’dear: ’Tis your happiness that concerns me more than all else.”
    She smiled at him once more.

2

    E MILY sat beside Lord Powell on the sofa and longed to dance. But no one had ever asked her to join a set, and she