it, he looked very tranquil, the startled Maria Angelina
thought, surprised into an upward glance. The two men were smiling very
frankly at each other. Mrs. Blair did not protest but rose, remarking,
"Come, Barry, since we are discovered. You can have something cool
afterwards."

"I'll have little Cousin afterwards," said Barry Elder. "I want to be
the first young man she has danced with in America."

"You won't be the last," Mr. Blair told him with a twinkling glance at
Maria Angelina's lovely little face.

"One of Jane's youngsters," he added, explanatorily to her. "She always
has a lot around--she says they are the companions her son would have
had if she'd had one."

Then, before Maria Angelina's polite but bewildered attention, he said
more comprehensibly, "You'll find Jane a lot younger than Ruth . . .
Barry's a clever chap--special work on one of the papers. Was in the
aviation. Did a play that fluked last year. Too much Harvard in it, I
expect. But a clever chap, very clever. Like him," he added decisively.

Maria Angelina had heard of Harvard. Her mother's father had been a
Harvard man. But she did not understand just why too much Harvard would
make a play fluke nor what a play did when it fluked, but she asked no
questions and sat very still, looking out at the dancing couples.

She saw her Cousin Jane whirling past. She tried to imagine her mother
dancing with young men at the Hotel Excelsior and she could not. Already
she wondered if she had better write everything.

Then the dancing pair came back to them and the young man sat down and
talked a little to her cousins. But at the music's recommencement he
turned directly to her.

"Signorina, are you going to do me the honor?"

He had a merry way with him as if he were laughing ever so little at
her, and Maria Angelina's heart which had been beating quite fast before
began to skip dizzily.

She thanked Heaven that it was a waltz for, while the new steps were
unknown, Maria could waltz--that was a gift from Papa.

"With pleasure, Signor," she murmured, rising.

"But you must take off your hat," Mrs. Blair told her.

"My hat? Take off?"

"That brim is too wide, my dear. You couldn't dance."

"But to go bareheaded--like a peasant?" Maria Angelina faltered and they
laughed.

"It doesn't matter--it's much better than that brim," Mrs. Blair
pronounced and obediently Maria's small hands rose and removed the
overshadowing whiteness from the dark l