nother. "He's simply amusing himself, like the male
flirt that he is. He has paid marked attention to half a dozen lovely
girls in succession, and now he brings Barbara Verne here just to show
them how completely he has dropped them."

In the mean while Duncan was behaving with the utmost discretion. After
the first set was over, he danced with one after another of the young
women upon whom he had lavished so much of "marked attention" as may be
implied from one, or at most two, formal calls upon each.

But this circumspection did not stop the chatter.

"Wonder if Mrs. Hallam means to take the girl up? It would be just like
her to do that, she's so fond of Duncan, you know; if she does----"

"Pardon me, but unless Mrs. Hallam has placed her character in your
hands for dissection, ladies, I must ask you not to discuss it further."

That utterance came from Captain Will Hallam, who happened to be
standing by the wall, very near the woman who had last spoken. It was
like a thunderbolt in its effect, for there was not one of the gossips
whose husband's prosperity was not in some more or less direct way in
Will Hallam's hands.

Instantly he turned and walked away to where Barbara shyly sat in a
corner, while half a dozen young men stood and talked with her. For
whatever the matrons might think, the young men all seemed eager for
Barbara's favor, and were making of her the belle of the evening by
their attentions.

To the astonishment of all of them, Hallam asked Barbara for her dancing
card. Nobody had ever heard of the great man of business dancing. He was
middle-aged, absorbed in affairs, and positively contemptuous of all
frivolities. He had come to the party only to bring his wife. He had
quickly gone away again, and he had now returned only to escort Mrs.
Hallam home. Nevertheless, he asked Barbara for her card and, finding it
full, he turned to Duncan, saying:

"I see that the next set is yours, Duncan. Won't you give it up to me,
if Miss Barbara permits?"

Half a minute later the music began again and, to the astonishment of
the whole company, Captain Will Hallam led out the demure little
Quakeress, and managed to walk through a cotillion with her, without
once treading on her toes.

That was Captain Will Hallam's way of emphasizing his displeasure with
the gossips, and marking his appreciation of Barbara. It was so
effective as to set the whole feminine part of the community talking for
a week to come. Bu