r own act annihilated herself. But Winny
knew that until Ranny was divorced from his wife the law continued to
regard him as married to her. So that, while firm land held and would
always hold her, she was aware that he and she were walking on the
brink, and that by the rule of the road Ranny went, so to speak, upon
the outer edge where it was far more dangerous. She knew that he had
more than once looked over; and she knew (though nothing would induce
_her_ to look) that the gulf was there, not far from her adventurous
feet.

Still, it was wonderful how all these years they had kept their heads.

So she said: "Hadn't we better be going? I think we ought to."

She had unlaced her hand from his, and had turned in her seat to face
him with her decision.

"Not yet."

"Well--soon. It's getting rather chilly, don't you think?"

At that he jumped up. "Are you cold, Winky?"

"My feet are, sitting."

"I forgot your little feet."

He raised her.

"It isn't late," he said. "We can walk about a bit."

They walked about, for he was very restless again.

"Wherever does that music come from?" Winny said.

Sounds came to them of violins and 'cellos, of trombones and clarinets,
playing a gay measure, a dance, insistent, luring, irresistible.

They followed it.

In a vast room fronted by a latticed screen, all green and white, roofed
by a green and white awning, and having a pattern of latticework, green
and white, upon its inner walls, on a vast polished floor was a crowd of
couples dancing to the music they had heard. It came loud through the
open lattices, the insistent, luring, irresistible measure, violent now
in solicitation, in appeal; and over it and under went the trailing,
shuffling slur of the feet of the dancers and the delicate swish of
women's gowns as they whirled.

Standing close outside, they could see into the hall through the
lattices of the screen. They saw forty or fifty couples whirling slowly
round and round to the irresistible measure; some were stiff and
awkward, palpably shy; some with invincible propriety whirled upright
and rigid, like toys wound up to whirl; some were abandoned to the
measure with madness, with passion, with a corybantic joy. Here and
there a girl leaned as if swooning in her lover's arms; her head hung
back; her lower lip drooped; her face showed the looseness and blankness
of a sensuous stupor. Other faces, staring, upraised, wore a look of
exaltation and of ecstasy. A