irl
always preferred to dance. "Let me look at you just once more."

Like a slender lily Damaris stood under the electric light. The soft
white satin seemed to cling like a sheath to the slender, beautiful
figure; her arms were bare; the bodice cut low enough to show her
gleaming shoulders. She was dazzling, virginal, remote as she stood
quite still, looking down at her maid.

Her eyes looked intensely black; her red hair flamed; she wore no
jewels save for a massive jewelled brooch in the shape of a hawk which
glittered in the bodice just above the waist-belt where, thinking the
bodice too low, she had pinned it hastily.

"I don't like that brooch, dearie," said the maid. "It's a waste of
money, I think, to buy these heathen things. But there! you and her
grace know best. And don't forget your cloak, darling; it's too chilly
to sit out in the grounds without one, Egypt or no Egypt. I'll be real
glad when we run into Waterloo station, that I shall."

Damaris laughed as she took the satin cloak with broad sable collar,
then kissed her Nannie and walked down the corridor to her godmother's
sitting-room, followed by the bulldog.

"I don't want to dance, Well-Well; I'd much rather stay up here with
you and read."

"Humff!" said the dog, as he followed his beloved onto the small
balcony, where he stood as close as he could to her as she leant on the
rail, and looked up at the moon and out to the other side of the river,
where ruined temple and ruined tomb shone white.

"I'll come up and see you both," she said, looking down into the
hideously-beautiful face, with its honest eyes and beaming expression.
"But I can't take you down with me, you know. You might hurl yourself
into the middle of a fox-trot to find me. I'll bring you up a cake or
a chocolate, if you'll stay in here and not go after Jane to worry her
with my night-slippers. Good boy; stay here and wait for Missie."

"Take me with you," said Wellington, as plainly as he could with eyes
and tail. "Take me with you."

"Can't, old boy. Look"--she reached inside for a book she had been
reading, and laid it on the ground. "Keep that for Missie until she
comes back."

She smiled down at the great brute as it placed both forefeet upon the
volume, but she sighed as she leant for a moment on the rail, then
suddenly drew back as she heard her name mentioned by someone who,
hankering after a cigarette, had wandered out to the canvas rocking
seat direct