satin--all of them elegant and correct in evening
clothes, while I in my rather shabby serge sat awkwardly trying to
hide the shininess of my elbows. From my position at one end of the
table I had an excellent opportunity to study the company. I saw in
Lloyd, I think, the attraction for Marcia. His looks, his topics, his
appetites were animal and gross. He drank continuously, smoked after
his salad, and monopolized the guest of the evening to the complete
exclusion of the others. Fragments of their talk reached me, of which
I understood a little--Greek to Jerry. Miss Gore sat calmly through it
all, leading Jerry into the conversation at propitious moments and out
of it when it threatened incomprehension.

There is a kind of charity of the dinner table and ballroom finer, I
think, than the mere kindness of giving, finer because it requires
discretion, nobler because it requires self-elimination. The more I
saw of Miss Gore the more deeply was I impressed by her many amiable
qualities. She had an ear for Jerry, but aware of my complete
elimination by the rowdy upon my left, found time to relieve the
awkwardness of my situation and contribute something to the pleasure
of what for me would otherwise have been a very unenjoyable repast.

But when dinner was over, to my great surprise, I found myself alone
with the girl Marcia. I have no very distinct notion of the means by
which she accomplished this feat, remembering only hazily that we all
ambled over to the conservatory, where a particular variety of orchid
seemed to interest the girl. And there we were, I explaining and she
listening, the others off somewhere near the entrance to the
gymnasium, where I heard Lloyd's voice in bored monotone. I was quite
sure in a moment that she hadn't managed to get me there to talk
orchids, and I felt a vague sense of discomfort at her nearness. I
have given the impression that her eyes were cold. As I looked into
them I saw that I had been mistaken. In the dim light they seemed
illumined at their greater depth by a hidden fire. She fixed her gaze
upon my face and moved ever so slightly toward me. You may think it
strange after what I have written when I say that at this moment I
felt a doubt rising in me as to whether or not I might have done this
girl an injustice, for her smile was frank, her air gracious, her tone
friendly.

"Oh, Mr. Canby," she said in her even voice, "I've wanted to tell you
what a wonderful thing it is that yo