ed the scenery, during the afternoon run;
and toward evening I thought I saw my way to something _big_.

You haven't seen the Piping Rock Club yet, I think. Well, it's
absolutely _it_, and only the right people belong. There's fine golf,
and tennis of course, and I've heard Englishmen say the lawns are more
like the turf "at home" than any they've seen on this side. In fact,
Winston said that very thing to-day: called the club an "American
Ranelagh." Not that I set much value on his opinion! The clubhouse
itself is just like some jolly old country house: white shingles and
green blinds, green and white awnings, large open court with brick walks
running all around, and a fountain playing in the middle, wicker chairs
scattered about the court, and window boxes full of pink flowers, wide
verandas or loggias, or whatever you call them, where you can have tea
or most anything else you want; a lot of rooms with comfortable
chintz-covered furniture, jolly chintz like the old patterns at Kidd's
Pines, and a ballroom fit for Buckingham Palace. You'll love the place;
but I'm not describing it to make you regret stopping at home. If things
have gone right with you, it would take twenty Piping Rocks to do
that--and _then_ one! All I'm aiming at is to show you the swell sort of
setting I had for my stage last night.

The big dances are in the fall and winter. This one was a special
affair, very smart but not big, and that made every one there more
conspicuous. Our crowd had about the only strangers in it. Pretty well
all the rest knew each other, and most of them belonged to the same
clique. I felt good all over, as if I had a chance of coming into my
own, when I found Storm in the chauffeur's seat of the Grayles-Grice,
ready to drive us to the dance. He was in evening clothes under his big
coat: had worn them to dinner of course, pretty weird ones; ready made,
I should say. I guessed that he meant to brave the business out, though
I wasn't quite easy in my mind up to the last that he wouldn't make some
excuse to go home when he'd got us to the clubhouse. But not a word of
the sort did he utter. On the contrary, I heard him tell Miss Moore she
"wasn't to forget their dance." That made me hot in the collar, and if
I'd been inclined to wobble before, I nailed my colours to the mast
then. Not only was I egged on by my anger against that fellow, who has
deliberately put stumbling-blocks in my way from the first, but by my
sincere desir