I dreamt that
I dwe-helt in ma-har-ble halls." Tom's own dreams were much wilder than
the gypsy girl's; he knew that; yet he spoke out bravely:

"Will you dance the two first with me?"

Miss Betty bit her lip, frowned, turned away, and, vouchsafing no reply,
walked toward the house with her eyes fixed on the ground; but just as
they reached the door she flashed over him a look that scorched him from
head to foot, and sent his spirits down through the soles of his boots
to excavate a grotto in the depths of the earth, so charged it was with
wrathful pity and contempt.

"Yes!" she said abruptly, and followed Mrs. Tanberry to the
dressing-room.

The elder lady shook her head solemnly as she emerged from the enormous
folds of a yellow silk cloak. "Ah, Princess," she said, touching the
girl's shoulder with her jeweled hand, "I told you I was a very foolish
woman, and I am, but not so foolish as to offer advice often. Yet,
believe me, it won't do. I think that is one of the greatest young men I
ever knew, and it's a pity--but it won't do."

Miss Betty kept her face away from her guardian for a moment. No
inconsiderable amount of information had drifted to her, from here
and there, regarding the career of Crailey Gray, and she thought how
intensely she would have hated any person in the world except Mrs.
Tanberry for presuming to think she needed to be warned against the
charms of this serenading lady-killer, who was the property of another
girl.

"You must keep him away, I think," ventured Mrs. Tanberry, gently.

At that Betty turned to her and said, sharply:

"I will. After this, please let us never speak of him again."

A slow nod of the other's turbaned head indicated the gravest
acquiescence. She saw that her companion's cheeks were still crimson. "I
understand," said she.

A buzz of whispering, like a July beetle, followed Miss Carewe and her
partner about the room during the next dance. How had Tom managed it?
Had her father never told her? Who had dared to introduce them? Fanchon
was the only one who knew, and as she whirled by with Will Cummings,
she raised her absent glance long enough to give Tom an affectionate and
warning shake of the head.

Tom did not see this; Miss Carewe did. Alas! She smiled upon him
instantly and looked deep into his eyes. It was the third time.

She was not afraid of this man-flirt; he was to be settled with once and
forever. She intended to avenge both Fanchon and herself; y