Oh, thank goodness, there you are. I should never have dared to stand
up alone in this crowd. Aren't these children awful? Get away, you
little brutes! If you touch me, I'll fall.--Here, give me change," she
said to the ice-man, holding out a twenty-pfennig piece.

Maurice saw that she was unusually excited, and as soon as he had drawn
her out of reach of the children, asked her the reason.

"I've something interesting to tell you, Maurice."

But here Dove, coming up behind, took possession of her left hand, with
no other greeting than the military salute, which, on the ice, he
adopted for all his friends, male and female, alike; and Madeleine
hastily swallowed the rest of her sentence.

They skated round the larger of the ponds several times without
stopping. The cold evening air stung their faces; the sun had gone down
in a lurid haze; Madeleine's skirts swayed behind her and lent her a
fictitious grace.

But presently she cried a halt, and while she rested in a quiet corner,
they watched Maurice doing a complicated figure, which he and his
Canadian friend had invented the day before. Dove was explaining how it
was done--"It is really not so hard as it looks"--when, with a cry of
"ACHTUNG!" some one whizzed in among them, scattered the group, and,
revolving on himself, ended with a jump in the air. It was James. He
took out his handkerchief and blew his nose, in the most unconcerned
manner possible.

"I don't think such acrobatic tricks should be allowed," said Madeleine
disapprovingly; she had been forced to grab Dove's arm to keep her
balance.

"Say, do you boys know the river has six inches and will be open
to-morrow, if it isn't to-day?" asked James, stooping to tighten a
strap.

"Is that so? Oh gee, that's fine!" cried Miss Martin, who had skated
leisurely up in his rear. "Say, you people, why don't we fix up a party
an' go up it nights? A lady in my boarding-house done that with some
folks she was acquainted with last year. Seems to me we oughtn't to be
behind."

Miss Martin was a skilled and graceful skater, and looked her best in a
dark fur hat and jacket, which set off her abundance of pale flaxen
hair. Others had followed her, and it was resolved to form a party for
the following evening, provided Dove had previously ascertained if the
river actually was "free," in order that they ran no risk of being
ignominiously turned off.

"The ice may be a bit rough, but it's a fine run to Connewitz."

"