The ball was to take place on Friday night. The house had been put in
order, the carpets covered with canvas, the halls and stairs decorated
with palms and potted plants; and in the afternoon Mr. Ryder sat on his
front porch, which the shade of a vine running up over a wire netting
made a cool and pleasant lounging-place. He expected to respond to the
toast "The Ladies," at the supper, and from a volume of Tennyson--his
favorite poet--was fortifying himself with apt quotations. The volume
was open at A Dream of Fair Women. His eyes fell on these lines, and he
read them aloud to judge better of their effect:--
"At length I saw a lady within call. Stiller than chisell'd marble,
standing there; A daughter of the gods, divinely tall, And most divinely
fair."