Why--why, she might even behave in the ballroom as if--as if she had a
right to claim him! She might even tell the Chesneys that--that---He strode out of the smoking room in time to see the Chesney party
taking their departure. As Lady Luce shook hands with the hostess and
murmured her thanks for "a delightful evening"--and for once they were
genuine and no idle formula--he saw her glance round the room as if in
search of some one; but he drew back out of sight.
Then, when they had gone, he reëntered the ballroom and his eyes sought
Nell. She met them, and he smiled, but rather anxiously, with a feeling
of disquietude; for there was----Was there something strange in the
expression of her face? But as she smiled back--can one imagine what
that smile cost Nell?--he drew a breath of relief, found a partner, and
joined in the dance.
By this time the party had reached the after-supper stage, and the
waltzes had grown faster. A set of lancers had been danced with so much
spirit and enjoyment that it had been encored. Some of the men were
talking and laughing just a little loudly, and the women's faces were
flushed with the one glass of champagne which is generally all they
permit themselves, the spell of the music, and the excitement of rapid
and rhythmical movement. Couples found their way into the anterooms and
recesses, or sat very close together in corners of the great, broad
staircase.
Some of the men had boldly deserted the ballroom and retreated to the
smoking room, where they could play whist and drink and smoke: "Must
wait for my womenfolk, you know."
Dick, at this, his first dance, was enjoying himself amazingly. He had
gone steadily through the program, and as steadily through most of the
dishes at supper, and he was now flirting, with all a boy's ardor, with
a plump little girl, the niece of Lady Maltby.
She was "just out," and Dick had danced three dances in succession with
her before she remembered that she was committing a breach of etiquette.
"Dance again with you? Oh, I couldn't!" she said, when Dick, with inward
tremors but an outward boldness, begged for the fourth. "I mustn't--I
really mustn't!"
"Why not?" demanded Dick innocently.
"If you weren't such a boy you wouldn't ask," she retorted severely, but
with a smile lurking in her bright young eyes.
"I bet I'm as old as you are," he said.
"Are you? I don't think you are. You look as if you'd just come from
school. I'm----No, I won't tell you. It was just a trick to learn my
age. But if you must know why I won't dance again with you, it is
because no lady ought to dance three times in succession with a man."