hat we two were Maying!"

"You misread our announcement," said Beverley Byrd, romping up. "No
opening for young men here, Gardy! Butt out."

West left her, his well-shaped head in something of a whirl. In another
minute he was off with Miss Avery upon a gallant two-step.

Fetzy's played on; the dancers floated or hopped according to their
nature; and presently a waltz faded out and in a breath converted itself
into the march for supper, the same air always for I don't know how many
years.

Miss Avery rose slowly from her seat, a handsome siren shaped, drilled,
fitted, polished from her birth for nothing else than the beguiling of
lordly man. From the heart of her beautiful bouquet she plucked a spray
of perfect lily-of-the-valley, and, eyes upon her own flowers, held it
out to West.

"They are beautiful," she said in her languorous voice. "I hadn't
thanked you for them, had I? Wear this for me, will you not?" She looked
up and her long eyes fell--we need not assume for the first time--upon
the flower in his lapel. "I beg your pardon," she said, with the
slightest change of expression and voice. "I see that you are already
provided. Shall we not go up?"

Laughing, he plucked a red, red rose from his buttonhole and jammed it
carelessly in his pocket.

"Give it to me."

"Why, it's of no consequence. Flowers quickly fade."

"Won't you understand?... you maddening lady. I've known all these girls
since they were born. When they offer me flowers, shall I hurt their
feelings and refuse? Give it to me."

She shook her head slowly.

"Don't you know that I'll prize it--and why?" said he in a low voice.
"Give it to me."

Their eyes met; hers fluttered down; but she raised them suddenly and
put the flower in his buttonhole, her face so close that he felt her
breath on his cheek.

Beside him at supper, she took up the thread of their earlier talk.

"If you must give up your business, why shouldn't it be for something
bigger than the college--public life for instance?"

"I may say," West answered her, "that as yet there has not been that
sturdy demand from the public, that uproarious insistence from the
honest voter ..."

"At dinner the other evening I met one of your fine old patriarchs,
Colonel Cowles. He told us that the new Mayor of this city, if he was at
all the right sort, would go from the City Hall to the Governorship. And
do you know who represents his idea of the right sort of Mayor?"

West, picking