Chapter 7.4 (Part 1)

   Despite her strategies, Maribella was seen as she slipped from the ballroom. Felix, returning from the card-room where he had been idly passing his time until he could, with reasonable excuse, gravitate to the side of his eldest ward, saw the bright chestnut curls dip through the doorway and for an instant had thought that Margaret was deserting him. But his sharp ears had almost immediately caught the husky tone of her laughter from a knot of gentlemen nearby and he realized it must have been Maribella, most like Margaret in colouring, whom he had seen.

   But he had more serious problems in his mind than whether Maribella had torn her flounce. His pursuit of the luscious Miss Fleming, or, rather, the difficulties which now lay in his path to her, were a matter for concern. The odd fact that he actually bothered to dance with his eldest ward had already