"How dreadfully solemn we are," said Leonora, rather awkwardly. Julius turned quickly with a laugh.
"Let us be gay," he said. "I hate solemnity, unless there is enough of it to make me laugh. I remember being at a ball once that produced that effect."
"Allons!" said Diana, "give us some of your reminiscences, Monsieur Batiscombe. They ought to be interesting."
"Not so much as you think. But the ball was very funny. It was in Guatemala, three years ago. I was invited to a huge thing by the president--an entirely new president, too, who had just cut the throats of the old president and of all his relations. I believe there was some sort of revolution at the time, and when it was over the victorious individual gave a ball. The refreshments were simple--brandy for the men and rosolio for the ladies; there was no compromise in the shape of a biscuit or a glass of water."
Leonora laughed, being willing to laugh at anything so as to encourage Julius to talk.
"En vérité, that was very amusing," remarked Diana coldly. Batiscombe took no notice.
"The women sat round the room in a double row," he continued, "like a court ball, excepting that they all smoked large cigars, and industriously passed the liqueur. The men stood behind and gave their undivided attention to the brandy. Not a soul spoke, and they all scowled fiercely at the brandy, the rosolio, and each other. A ghastly and tuneless quartette of instruments doled out a melancholy dirge, slower than anything you ever heard at a funeral; and now and then some enterprising and funereal man led out a less enterprising but equally melancholy female in a strange step, like the tormented ghost of a waltz in chains. It was so hideous that I went out and laughed till I almost had a fit. I have never thought anything seemed very solemn since then--it destroyed the proportion in my brain. A pauper's burial on a rainy day in London is a wildly gay entertainment compared with that ball."
Leonora laughed, and even Diana smiled; whereupon Julius was satisfied, and relapsed into silence. But Leonora wanted conversation.
"What in the world took you to Guatemala, Mr. Batiscombe?" she asked.
"That is a question which I cannot answer, Marchesa," he replied. "I believe I went there for some reason or other--chiefly because I could go for nothing, and wanted to see something new."