hen I had never seen
either of them before? and gentlemen," she said, with a little glance
(almost saucy: Chatty had developed so much) at Dick, "are so like each
other in London."

At which Dick laughed, not without, gratification, with a secret
consciousness that though this little arrow was apparently levelled at
him, he was the exception to the rule, the one man who was recognisable
in any crowd. "Yes," he said, "we should wear little labels with our
names. I have heard that suggested before."

"They put down initials on my programme. I don't know what half of them
mean: and I suppose they came and looked for me when the dance was going
to begin, or perhaps in the middle of the dance, or towards the end;
they didn't seem to be very particular," proceeded Chatty, with a certain
exhilaration in the success of her description. "And how were they to
find me among such a lot of girls? I saw two or three prowling about
looking for me."

"And never made the smallest sign?"

"Oh, it is not the right thing for a girl to make any sign, is it,
mamma? One can't say, Here I am! If they don't manage to find you, you
must just put up with it, though you may see them prowling all the time.
It is tiresome when you want very much to dance; but when you are
indifferent----"

"The pleasures of society are all for the indifferent," said Dick;
"everything comes to you, so the wise people say, when you don't care
for it: but my brothers, who are dancing men, don't know how malicious
ladies are, who make fun of their prowling. I shall remember it next
time when I can't find my partner, and imagine her laughing at me in a
corner."

"The amusement is after," said Chatty, with candour.

"I think it funny now when I think of it, but it seemed stupid at the
time. I don't think I shall care to go to a dance in London again."

But as she said these words there escaped a mutual glance from two pairs
of eyes, one of which said in the twitching of an eyelash, "Unless I am
there!" while the other, taken unawares, gave an answer in a soft flash,
"Ah, if you were there!" But there was nothing said: and Mrs. Warrender,
though full of observation, never noticed this telegraphic, or shall we
say heliographic, communication at all.

This little hindrance only made them better friends. They made expeditions
to Richmond, where Dick took the ladies out on the river; to Windsor and
Eton, where Theo and he had both been to school. Long before now he