ere. She hurried on the almond Sundays and struck
the match for the kettle in quite a dashing way.

But to-day she passed the baker's by, climbed the stairs, went into
the little dark room--her room like a cupboard--and sat down on the red
eiderdown. She sat there for a long time. The box that the fur came out
of was on the bed. She unclasped the necklet quickly; quickly, without
looking, laid it inside. But when she put the lid on she thought she
heard something crying.

10. HER FIRST BALL.

Exactly when the ball began Leila would have found it hard to say.
Perhaps her first real partner was the cab. It did not matter that she
shared the cab with the Sheridan girls and their brother. She sat back
in her own little corner of it, and the bolster on which her hand rested
felt like the sleeve of an unknown young man's dress suit; and away they
bowled, past waltzing lamp-posts and houses and fences and trees.

"Have you really never been to a ball before, Leila? But, my child, how
too weird--" cried the Sheridan girls.

"Our nearest neighbour was fifteen miles," said Leila softly, gently
opening and shutting her fan.

Oh dear, how hard it was to be indifferent like the others! She tried
not to smile too much; she tried not to care. But every single thing
was so new and exciting... Meg's tuberoses, Jose's long loop of amber,
Laura's little dark head, pushing above her white fur like a flower
through snow. She would remember for ever. It even gave her a pang to
see her cousin Laurie throw away the wisps of tissue paper he pulled
from the fastenings of his new gloves. She would like to have kept those
wisps as a keepsake, as a remembrance. Laurie leaned forward and put his
hand on Laura's knee.

"Look here, darling," he said. "The third and the ninth as usual. Twig?"

Oh, how marvellous to have a brother! In her excitement Leila felt that
if there had been time, if it hadn't been impossible, she couldn't have
helped crying because she was an only child, and no brother had ever
said "Twig?" to her; no sister would ever say, as Meg said to Jose that
moment, "I've never known your hair go up more successfully than it has
to-night!"

But, of course, there was no time. They were at the drill hall already;
there were cabs in front of them and cabs behind. The road was bright on
either side with moving fan-like lights, and on the pavement gay couples
seemed to float through the air; little satin shoes chased each othe