t early, because Mrs. Nancy had asked me to be there to help with
her guests. Geoffrey Fox went with me. He was very picturesque in a
ragged jerkin with a black bandage over his eyes and with old Mamie
leading him at the end of a cord. She enjoyed it immensely, and they
attracted a lot of attention, as he went tap-tapping along with his cane
over the polished floor, or whined for alms, while she sat up on her
haunches with a tin cup in her mouth.

Well, Dr. Richard met us at the door, looking the young squire to
perfection in his grandfather's old dress coat of blue with brass
buttons. The people from New York hadn't come, so Mrs. Nancy put the
pearls in my hair, and they made me stand under the portrait in the
library, to see if I were really like my grandmother. I can't believe
that I looked as lovely as she, but they said I did, and I began to feel
as happy and excited as Cinderella at her ball.

Then the New York crowd arrived in motors, and they were all masked. I
knew Eve Chesley at once and Winifred Ames, but it was hard to be sure of
any one else. Eve Chesley was a Rose, with a thousand fluttering flounces
of pink chiffon. She was pursued by two men dressed as Butterflies, slim
and shining in close caps with great silken wings--a Blue Butterfly and a
Brown one. I was pretty sure that the Brown one was Philip Meade. It was
quite wonderful to watch them with their wings waving. Eve carried a
pocketful of rose petals and threw them into the air as she went. I had
never imagined anything so lovely.

Well, I danced with Dr. Richard and I danced with Geoffrey Fox, and I
danced with Dutton Ames, and with some men that I had never met before.
It seemed so _good_ to be doing things like the rest. Then all at once I
began to feel that the Blue Butterfly was watching me. He drifted away
from his pursuit of Evelyn Chesley, and whenever I raised my eyes, I
could see him in corners staring at me.

It gave me a queer feeling. I couldn't be sure, and yet--there he was.
And, Uncle Rod, suddenly I knew him! Something in the way he carried
himself. You know Jimmie's little swagger!

I think I lost my head after that. I flirted with Dr. Richard and with
Geoffrey Fox. I think I even flirted a little with Dutton Ames. I wanted
them to be nice to me. I wanted Jimmie to see that what he had scorned
other men could value. I wanted him to know that I had forgotten him. I
laughed and danced as if my heart was as light as my heels, and