e heard a girl ask: "Who's that against the wall with the hair and
dark moustache?"--and her partner murmuring his answer, and her voice
again: "Yes, he looks as if he were seeing sand and lions." For whom,
then, did they take him? Thank heaven! They were all the usual sort.
There would be no one that he knew. Suppose Johnny Dromore himself came
with Nell! He was to be back on Saturday! What could he say, then? How
meet those doubting, knowing eyes, goggling with the fixed philosophy
that a man has but one use for woman? God! and it would be true! For a
moment he was on the point of getting his coat and hat, and sneaking
away. That would mean not seeing her till Monday; and he stood his
ground. But after to-night there must be no more such risks--their
meetings must be wisely planned, must sink underground. And then he saw
her at the foot of the stairs in a dress of a shell-pink colour, with one
of his flowers in her light-brown hair and the others tied to the handle
of a tiny fan. How self-possessed she looked, as if this were indeed her
native element--her neck and arms bare, her cheeks a deep soft pink, her
eyes quickly turning here and there. She began mounting the stairs, and
saw him. Was ever anything so lovely as she looked just then? Behind
her he marked Oliver, and a tall girl with red hair, and another young
man. He moved deliberately to the top of the stairs on the wall side, so
that from behind they should not see her face when she greeted him. She
put the little fan with the flowers to her lips; and, holding out her
hand, said, quick and low:

"The fourth, it's a polka; we'll sit out, won't we?"

Then swaying a little, so that her hair and the flower in it almost
touched his face, she passed, and there in her stead stood Oliver.

Lennan had expected one of his old insolent looks, but the young man's
face was eager and quite friendly.

"It was awfully good of you to come, Mr. Lennan. Is Mrs. Lennan--"

And Lennan murmured:

"She wasn't able; she's not quite--" and could have sunk into the shining
floor. Youth with its touching confidence, its eager trust! This was
the way he was fulfilling his duty towards Youth!

When they had passed into the ballroom he went back to his position
against the wall. They were dancing Number Three; his time of waiting,
then, was drawing to a close. From where he stood he could not see the
dancers--no use to watch her go round in someone else's arms.