I will have you called."

Lloyd went thoughtfully back into his sitting room, stood for a moment
undecided, then walked through the communicating door into the next
room. The two single beds, bureaus, table and chairs but partially
filled the bedroom, which was unusually large. There were two side
windows, and two doors, one of which opened directly into the back
hall, and the other into the sitting room.

Lloyd did not trouble to undress. He kicked off his muddy boots, and
tossed them into a corner of the room; removed his coat and hung it on
the back of a chair; then threw himself on the outside of one of the
beds, drawing a quilt over him. His head had hardly touched the pillow
before his regular breathing testified that he had fallen into the
heavy slumber of utter exhaustion.

* * * * *

Mrs. Arnold's ball was in full swing when Nancy and her aunt arrived.
Nancy did not look well, to Miss Metoaca's concern, who tersely advised
her to pull herself together, or else stay at home. If she had followed
the latter course, Miss Metoaca would have been bitterly disappointed,
for she greatly enjoyed going to parties and watching Nancy's
belleship.

Nancy much preferred staying quietly at home. Dull care dogged her
footsteps; Goddard's pathetic face haunted her memory. Do what she
could; go where she would, she could never banish from her mind his
halting, passionate words spoken on that never-forgotten day in
Winchester. After all, did she wish to?

Mrs. Arnold's spacious new house was filled with members of the cabinet
and their wives; some of the foreign ministers and their secretaries,
and Washington's residential circle, which consisted of about
forty-five persons, all told, who religiously attended each other's
parties, and occasionally went to the President's levees, and the
entertainments of the diplomatic corps and the cabinet officers. A
"social column" in the daily paper was never heard of; but,
notwithstanding, each person knew when the other was giving a party or
entertaining house guests. Occasionally a paragraph was slipped in the
_National Intelligencer_, saying: "Miss H---- attended Mrs. R----'s
reception," but even that was considered very bad form, though initials
only were given.

Mrs. Arnold received Nancy and her aunt with some reserve. She did not
want her nephew to marry Nancy, but still less, with true feminine
inconsistency, did she want him to be j