danced with Nina, and suggested to her it was time to leave, but
that young matron had tasted just enough to want more; and Eileen, too,
was evidently having a most delightful time. So he settled into the
harness of pleasure and was good to the pink-and-white ones; and they
told each other what a "dear" he was, and adored him more inconveniently
than ever.

Truly enough, as he had often said, these younger ones were the
charmingly wholesome and refreshing antidote to the occasional
misbehaviour of the mature. They were, as he also asserted, the hope and
promise of the social fabric of a nation--this younger set--always a
little better, a little higher-minded than their predecessors as the
wheel of the years slowly turned them out in gay, eager, fearless
throngs to teach a cynical generation the rudiments of that wisdom which
blossoms most perfectly in the hearts of the unawakened.

Yes, he had frequently told himself all this; told it to others, too.
But, now, the younger set, _en masse_ and in detail, had become a little
bit _cramponne_--a trifle too all-pervading. And it was because his
regard for them, in the abstract, had become centred in a single
concrete example that he began to find the younger set a nuisance. But
others, it seemed, were quite as mad about Eileen Erroll as he was; and
there seemed to be small chance for him to possess himself of her,
unless he were prepared to make the matter of possession a pointed
episode. This he knew he had no right to do; she had conferred no such
privilege upon him; and he was obliged to be careful of what he did and
said lest half a thousand bright unwinking eyes wink too knowingly--lest
frivolous tongues go clip-clap, and idle brains infer that which, alas!
did not exist except in his vision of desire.

The Hither Woods had been hung with myriads of lanterns. From every
branch they swung in clusters or stretched away into perspective,
turning the wooded aisles to brilliant vistas. Under them the more
romantic and the dance-worn strolled in animated groups or quieter twos;
an army of servants flitted hither and thither, serving the acre or so
of small tables over each of which an electric cluster shed yellow
light.

Supper, and then the Woodland cotillon was the programme; and almost all
the tables were filled before Selwyn had an opportunity to collect Nina
and Austin and capture Eileen from a very rosy-cheeked and indignant boy
who had quite lost his head and heart