mediately surrounded by a
circle of young men and women, flushed with dancing, shouting as was
their wont, laughing inexplicably over words and phrases and
unintelligible mono-syllables, as if they all belonged to a secret
society and these cries were symbols of things exquisitely humorous,
which only they understood. Ariel laughed with them more heartily than
any other, so that she might seem to be of them and as merry as they
were, but almost immediately she found herself outside of the circle,
and presently they all whirled away into another dance, and she was
left alone again.

So she sat, no one coming near her, through several dances, trying to
maintain the smile of delighted interest upon her face, though she felt
the muscles of her face beginning to ache with their fixedness, her
eyes growing hot and glazed. All the other girls were provided with
partners for every dance, with several young men left over, these
latter lounging hilariously together in the doorways. Ariel was careful
not to glance towards them, but she could not help hating them. Once
or twice between the dances she saw Miss Pike speak appealingly to one
of the superfluous, glancing, at the same time, in her own direction,
and Ariel could see, too, that the appeal proved unsuccessful, until at
last Mamie approached her, leading Norbert Flitcroft, partly by the
hand, partly by will-power. Norbert was an excessively fat boy, and at
the present moment looked as patient as the blind. But he asked Ariel
if she was "engaged for the next dance," and, Mamie having flitted
away, stood disconsolately beside her, waiting for the music to begin.
Ariel was grateful for him.

"I think you must be very good-natured, Mr. Flitcroft," she said, with
an air of raillery.

"No, I'm not," he replied, plaintively. "Everybody thinks I am because
I'm fat, and they expect me to do things they never dream of asking
anybody else to do. I'd like to see 'em even ASK 'Gene Bantry to go
and do some of the things they get me to do! A person isn't
good-natured just because he's fat," he concluded, morbidly, "but he
might as well be!"

"Oh, I meant good-natured," she returned, with a sprightly laugh,
"because you're willing to waltz with me."

"Oh, well," he returned, sighing, "that's all right."

The orchestra flourished into "La Paloma"; he put his arm mournfully
about her, and taking her right hand with his left, carried her arm out
to a rigid right angle, beginnin