ious! Don't look so terrified."

Skippy's answer was something between a gulp and a gurgle.

"Don't you want _me_ to teach you?" said Dolly in the velvetiest voice
in the world.

"I'll try; I'll try anything you say," he said, breathing hard, "only I
say, Dolly, remember a cart-horse has done more dancing than I ever
have."

"The two-step is frightfully easy--you'll see," said the young lady when
they had reached the dark end of the piazza. "It's just one-two to
music. Put your arm around me!"

"What?"

"You goose! How can you dance if you don't?" said Dolly in a cool
professional manner. "Take my hand. So! Now just walk in rhythm."

When Skippy for the first time in his life had actually closed his arm
around a feminine waist and clutched at the outstretched hand, he had a
sensation of terrifying dizziness, such as had once overcome him when on
a dare he had poised himself thirty feet in the air for his first high
dive.

"Begin! One, two, left foot, to the music!"

Skippy blindly and obediently began to walk. He walked all over the
little feet. He walked on his own. He walked into a chair and ricocheted
from a table with a bump that bounced them off the railing.

"That's enough!" said Dolly in a slightly discouraged voice. "Gracious!
You mustn't grab me like that. You're not drowning."

"Drowning's nothing to this," said Skippy, rubbing his forehead. "You
see it's hopeless."

"Of course it isn't hopeless. If that great big lummox of a Tacks
Brooker can dance aren't you ashamed of yourself to give up like that?"

"I'll never dance another step," said Skippy sulkily.

"The idea, Jack Bedelle! I want you to dance, and dance you shall!" said
Dolly, stamping her foot. "Do you understand?"

[Illustration: He balanced carefully, stretched out one arm to encircle
an imaginary waist. _Page 172_]

"Don't rub it in, Dolly."

"Foolish boy!" said the young lady, squeezing his arm. "Do you think I
want to dance all summer long with _other_ men?"

Three-quarters of an hour later Skippy again, but alone, reached the
protecting shadows. Again the orchestra was beating out an exhilarating
measure.

"You bet I'm not going to let her dance with other men," he said under
his breath. He balanced carefully, stretched out one arm to encircle an
imaginary waist and started heavily to tread the illusive measure.
Suddenly he realized that he was not alone. Farther down a couple were
swaying in the shadows. Then Dolly's v