ly, affectionately
patting Miss Pilgrim's rose kid, "for calling you a strange young lady.
You are not strange at all--you're just as nice a girl as there is."

"There are no excuses necessary," said Miss Pilgrim, with a bewitching
little laugh. "Billy and I know each other intimately well, Mrs.
Lovegrove, and I confess that when I heard the lady Aunt had been
invited to visit was his mother, I felt all the more willing to
infringe on etiquette this evening, by coming where I had no previous
introduction."

"Don't you care!" said Billy encouragingly, "I'll introduce you to every
one of our family; I know 'em if you don't."

At this moment I came up as Billy's reinforcement, and, fearing lest, in
his enthusiasm, he might forget the canon of society which introduced
a gentleman to a lady, not a lady to him, I ventured to suggest
it delicately by saying, "Billy, will you grant me the favor of a
presentation to Miss Pilgrim?"

"In a minute, Uncle Teddy," answered Billy, considerably lowering his
voice. "The older people first;" and after this reproof I was left to
wait in the cold until he had gone through the ceremony of introducing
to the young lady his father and his mother.

Billy, who had now assumed entire guardianship of Miss Pilgrim, with an
air of great dignity intrusted her to my care, and left us promenading
while he went in search of Daniel. I, myself, looked in vain for that
youth, whom I had not seen since the entrance of the last comers. Miss
Pilgrim and I found a congenial common ground in Billy, whom she spoke
of as one of the most delightfully original boys she had ever met; in
fact, altogether the most fascinating young gentleman she had seen
in New York society. You may be sure it wasn't Billy's left ear which
burned when I made my responses.

In five minutes he reappeared to announce, in a tone of disappointment,
that he could find Daniel nowhere. He could see a light through his
keyhole, but the door was locked and he could get no admittance. Just
then Lu came up to present a certain--no, an uncertain--young man of the
fleet stranded on parlor furniture earlier in the evening. To Lu's great
astonishment, Miss Pilgrim asked Billy's permission to leave him. It was
granted with all the courtesy of a _preux chevalier_, on the condition,
readily assented to, that she should dance one Lancers with him during
the evening.

"Dear me!" exclaimed Lu, after Billy had gone back like a superior
being, to a