while and
heard it strike two."

"May be you are right. I did not look. But lots of people were still
there when I left. Do you like the two-step better than the waltz?"

"Yes, I do. But that was on Sunday--after twelve o'clock. Weren't you
ashamed to dance on Sunday?"

"I think I like the waltz better. The waltz is to the two-step what the
minuet is to the jig. Don't you think so now? Young Mrs. Black is a
splendid waltzer. Next to you, she is about the best."

"Well, I do not care to be compared with her. And I hope you didn't
dance with her. She, divorced and married again, and not twenty-four
yet!"

"I don't see as much harm in a young woman being divorced as an old
one."

"I do. They ought to live together long enough to know if their troubles
are real."

"Hers were."

"I always thought Mr. Hughes was real nice. Did you find your program?"

"No, I must have lost it."

They rose from the breakfast table and went, arm in arm, to the
sitting-room. They divided the morning paper and sat in silence for a
while. Tom went over the first page, read the prospects for war between
Russia and Japan, then the European despatches, and then came to the
page with the city news. He glanced carelessly over it, seeing little to
attract him. By and by his eyes returned to a column that he had passed
because calamities did not interest him, something about an explosion.
When he came to it the second time his eyes fell on one of the
subheadings and it made him catch his breath. He read the headlines from
the top.

"Great Heavens!" he said to himself, and shot a glance at his wife from
the corners of his eyes. "Lord, I am in for it."

The heading that he saw was:

_Terrific Explosion at a Ball._
_Panic Barely Averted._
_Mrs. Tad-Wallington's Dance Interrupted._
_Fire Ensued, but no Great Damage Done._
_Many of the Women Fainted._

He then read the article through to see if there was any loop-hole, but
found that the explosion had occurred, perhaps, before he was five
squares away--about a quarter of ten, in fact. And he had admitted to
his wife that he had stayed there until late at night!

"She mustn't see this page," he said to himself. "I must get it out of
here and burn it."

He glanced at his wife again. She was reading her sheet interestedly. He
separated the part that contained the city news and was preparing to
smuggle it from the room under his coat.

"Here is the account of t