I couldn't find you anywhere in the crowd."

"What's the trouble, little woman?" he asked. "Quite surprising to see
you unappropriated. Any one been bothering you?"

"Yes--a man. One of the stewards introduced him----"

The ready fire flashed in his eyes.

"Confound him! Where is he? What did he do?"

"Nothing--very much. Only--I didn't like it. Come and sit down
somewhere and I'll tell you."

She slipped her hand under his arm, and pressed close to him as they
sought out a seat between the rows of glass-fronted book-shelves in
which the Lawrence Hall library is housed.

"Here you are," he said. "Sit down and tell me exactly what happened."

She glanced nervously at his face, which had in it a touch of
sternness that recalled their painful interview three weeks ago.

"I--I don't think he really knew what he was talking about," she
began, her eyes on the butterfly fan, which she opened and shut
mechanically while speaking. "He began by saying that fancy balls were
quite different to other ones; that the real fun of them was that
every one could say and do just what they pleased, and nothing
mattered at all. He said his own dress was specially convenient,
because no one could expect a Pierrot to be responsible for his
actions. Then he--he said that by coming as a butterfly I had given
every man in the room the right to--to catch me if he could. Wasn't
that hateful?"

"Curse him!" muttered Desmond under his breath. "Well--was that all?"

She shook her head with a rueful smile.

"I don't half like telling you, Theo; you look so stern. I'm afraid
you'll be very angry."

"_Not_ with you, dear. Go on."

"Well, I told him I didn't see it that way at all, and he said of
course not; butterflies never _did_ see that people had any right to
catch them; yet they got caught all the same. Then he took tight hold
of my hands, and came so close to me that--I was frightened, and asked
him to take me back to the ballroom at once. He said it wasn't fair,
that the whole twelve minutes belonged to him, and he wouldn't be
cheated out of any of it. Then when I was getting up to go away,
he--he laughed, and put his arm round me, so that I couldn't move,
though I tried to--I did, truly."

At that her husband's arm went round her, and she yielded with a sigh
of satisfaction to its protective pressure.

"The brute didn't dare to--kiss you, did he, Ladybird?"

"Oh, no--no. The music began, and some people came by, and he had to