I thought did he.

I saw Preston, when now and then I caught a glimpse of him, looking
excessively glum. Midway in the evening it happened that I was
standing beside him for a few moments, waiting for my next partner.

"You are dancing with nobody but that man whom I hate!" he grumbled.
"Who is it now?"

"Captain Vaux."

"Will you dance with me after that?"

"I cannot, Preston. I must dance with Major Banks."

"You seem to like it pretty well," he growled.

"No wonder," said Mrs. Sandford. "You were quite right about the
geranium leaves, Daisy; you do not want them. You do not want
anything, my dear," she whispered.

At this instant a fresh party entered the room, just as my partner
came up to claim me.

"There are some handsome girls," said the captain. "Two of them,
really!"

"People from Cozzens's," said Mrs. Sandford, "who think the cadets
keep New York hours."

It was Faustina St. Clair and Mary Lansing, with their friends and
guardians, I don't know whom. And as I moved to take my place in the
dance, I was presently confronted by my school adversary and the
partner she had immediately found. The greeting was very slight and
cool on her side.

"Excessively handsome," whispered the captain. "A friend of yours?"

"A schoolfellow," I said.

"Must be a pleasant thing, I declare, to have such handsome
schoolfellows," said the captain. "Beauty is a great thing, isn't it?
I wonder, sometimes, how the ladies can make up their minds to take up
with such great rough ugly fellows as we are, for a set. How do you
think it is?"

I thought it was wonderful, too, when they were like him. But I said
nothing.

"Dress, too," said the captain. "Now look at our dress! Straight and
square and stiff, and no variety in it. While our eyes are delighted,
on the other side, with soft draperies and fine colours, and
combinations of grace and elegance that are fit to put a man in
Elysium!"

"Did you notice the colour of the haze in the west, this evening, at
sunset?" I asked.

"Haze? No, really. I didn't know there was any haze, really, except in
my head. I get hazy amidst these combinations. Seriously, Miss
Randolph, what do you think of a soldier's life?"

"It depends on who the soldier is," I said.

"Cool, really!" said the captain. "Cool! Ha! ha!--"

And he laughed, till I wondered what I could have said to amuse him so
much.

"Then you have learned to individualize soldiers already?" was his
next question