on't want to do it
here.'

"'Where can we go?' she asked.

"'I know a man in Chicago,' I said, 'who has asked me to come to his
place. It ain't stylish enough for you, but it's run right and
respectable. It ain't very far from here. Reilly's. Know it?'

"'I've heard of it,' she said, 'but I've never been there.'

"Of course she hadn't. I'd seen right off she was just a kid and hadn't
been around to places.

"'Will you go there with me now?' I asked her.

"'Yes;' she said. 'I know you're all right.'

"Maybe I wasn't feeling good when I'd got her out of there and steered her
through the streets! She was a little mite of a thing, and young, but very
quiet; her eyes had a sad look.

"We went to Reilly's: He was up here in the hill country once for a
vacation--the time you were out on the coast. We fellows gave him some
time, and he liked it fine. Well, he told us the place was ours. The music
was great, and we started right out on the floor. Say! I was feeling as
fit and stepping as lively as if I had had a million drinks, but I hadn't
had one. There was no getting around it. That little girl in her white
dress had landed me one right over the heart. She slipped into my arms as
quick as she had into my heart, too. I danced the way I felt, and
she--well, she was right with me every time: the slickest little stepper I
ever saw. Not dance-mad, like those professional kind; she let me set the
pace and she followed any lead.

"Reilly came up to us on the floor and offered to introduce us to folks. I
asked him if he remembered the time I gave him out west, and he said he
could never forget it and he was now aiming to return it best he knew how.
'Take it from me,' I said, 'that I can get right returns from you if
you'll not give any other fellow the chance to butt in on these dances.'
'I'm on,' he said, and he let us alone.

"We danced every time without talking any. When it came closing time,
Reilly came up again and said: 'This is the hour we quit, but it don't
mean for my guests. Come back in this little room and have refreshments on
me.'

"He showed us into a little ring-around-the-rosy room with lights half off
and asks: 'What'll you have?'

"'Coffee,' I said quickly and warningly, and the kid said: 'I'll have the
same.'

"Reilly laughed--because I took coffee, I suppose. We got it good and hot,
with sandwiches and pickles thrown in. Then we talked. Someway she got me
to do most of the talking. She wanted to