Gratified, she went. In the hall she met Penelope, who had just come out of her room. Penelope wore a simple gray woolen dress she had brought with her when she came to live seven years ago. Seeing Nell, she caught her breath. “That dress surely cost three bales of cotton,” she declared.

Sweeping past her to the stairway, Nell said, “Only two, I believe.”

“Uncle Joshua said a lady does nothing to draw attention to her person.”

As she started down the stairs, Nell said, “Honi soit qui mal y pense.”

Penelope followed so closely that Nell grasped a banister, as if fearful of being pushed or tripped.

“Vanity, vanity,” Penelope whispered as the two olding women came to the foot of the stairs and heard the voices of guests being welcomed in the broad center hall, which would be the main place for dancing. They put on sweet old-lady smiles and went forward.

In his room upstairs Felix had eased his head to the high pillow tops when his visitors left. He raised it and spoke to Stella, who waited in the warm shadows beside the fireplace which all day had burned with a small fire, for it was still January. “Shut the door,” he said. She moved quickly and did so. “Secure the bolt.”

When she had done that, she turned to face him and leaned her back against the closed door, smiling at the man. He picked up the book he had put down on the bed, bent the bottom corner of a page and closed it. Stella came to the bed and took the book he held out and set it aside.

He said, “Pour us a glass, girl.”

She found glass and brandy and poured. He took the glass from her, nodded to her as if making a silent toast, and drank from it. She took the glass from him when he held it for her and drank too. She offered it to him again, but he shook his head with a smile. She set the glass on the table and then sat herself down on the side of the bed.

“The other door,” he murmured.

She rose and slid the bolt softly on the door that led to Nell’s room. As she came back to him, she pulled her dress over her head and dropped it to the floor beside the bed. She sat down again, untying the drawstring at the top of her petticoat. She leaned closer for his convenience, and his hand slipped into the bodice of her petticoat and found a breast.

“Stella,” he said softly.