Elinor had instructed her to wait until he should return for her,
Arethusa waited. But they had been so late in their coming that the few
girls who had been in the room when she arrived, were soon gone with
their liveliness and laughter, and the tardiest guest was left alone.
She sat on the extreme edge of a chair quite near the door as she
waited, and tapped her feet impatiently.

The Party seemed already to be in full swing; music was playing, and
she caught a glimpse of dancers in the large ball room at the other end
of the hall. It was maddening to be so near It and not a part of It.
She went to the door and peered out. She considered that Mr. Harrison
was entirely too long in returning. But he was amusing himself in the
hall, and was not in the least hurry to take up the burden of his
evening.

One of the men in the little group where he stood, whose eyes were
towards that dressing-room door, noticed Arethusa.

"Who's the stranger?" he enquired, "And she's some looker, too, believe
me."

The whole group turned as one man to stare in Arethusa's direction. Mr.
Harrison was unpleasantly reminded of what was before him.

"I've got a skirt in there," he muttered, "and I might as well go get
her, I reckon."

"This one yours? Confide in us, Harry, and introduce us, immediately if
not sooner. The idea of your keeping anything like that all to
yourself!"

"No." Mr. Harrison was admiring Arethusa's lovely, eager face. "I
haven't any idea who she is! Wish I did know! But mine's a hayseed,
daughter of a friend of Aunt Nell's up from the country for the very
first time in her life! That's what I drew for being in the family!
Well, pray for me, fellows, for here goes!"

He made straight for Arethusa.

With each step he took towards her, the greater his admiration grew.
Mr. Harrison's affections fluttered from girl to girl like a moth in a
room, full of candles, unable to settle down steadily to one particular
flame. He did not recognize Arethusa as his lady for the evening. He
had been so late in going for her that she had been all muffled and
waiting for him when he arrived. And he had not cared to look very
closely at the figure in those wrappings. Mr. Harrison asked very
little of the damsels he honored with his attention, save that they be
pretty. He decided, without the slightest hesitancy, that Arethusa was
the prettiest girl he had ever seen.

She did not see him coming, or even hear his approach, with all h