viously. "But before I think of myself, Hastings, I must seek an
interesting partner for you, also."

"Kind of you," returned Hal, gratefully. "But I fear I must remain a
wall-flower, or a human palm to-night. I don't know how to dance."

"You don't?" murmured Featherstone, in amazement. "Good heavens! I
thought even the bootblacks knew how to dance in these modern days!"

Jacob Farnum knew how to dance, but did not care for it this evening.
He was much in love with his young wife, and, as she was not here, the
ballroom floor had no attractions for him. So he and Hal retired to
seats at the side of the ballroom.

"Jack is dancing with a famously pretty girl--the loveliest of many
that are here to-night," smiled the shipbuilder. "I trust he won't have
his head turned."

"Don't worry, sir," Hal rejoined, briefly.

The second dance, also, Jack Benson enjoyed with Mlle. Nadiboff. The
young woman herself arranged that gracefully. At the end of the second
dance Jack led his partner to a seat. Then she sent him for a glass of
water.

Her cobwebby lace handkerchief fell to the floor. M. Lemaire, passing
at that instant, espied it, picked it up, and returned it to her with
the bow of a polished man of the world.

"Flatter the young fellow! Make him dance attendance on you to the point
that he forgets all else," whispered the man.

"Trust me for that," murmured the girl.

"I do." And M. Lemaire was gone, swallowed up in the increasing throng.

As Jack Benson brought the glass of water Mlle. Nadiboff sipped at it
daintily. Raising her eyes so that she could read the placard now
suspended from the balcony rail, she announced:

"The next number is a waltz, Captain Benson. Truly, I am eager to know
how you waltz. It is a sailor's measure."

"Then perhaps you will favor me with a waltz, later in the evening,"
returned Jack, courteously. "But if I had the impudence to ask you
for this waltz, and if you were generous enough to grant it to me, I
know what would happen."

"What, my friend?"

The word "friend" was gently spoken, but Jack Benson replied bluntly:

"Some of the men here would lynch me, later in the night, Mlle.
Nadiboff."

The young woman laughed musically, though, as Jack glanced away for an
instant, a frown flashed briefly over her face.

"You will not disappoint me, I know, Captain," she murmured,
persuasively. "Besides, you are too brave to fear lynching for an act
that grants pleasu