"I am so sorry you are not dancing," says her companion, leaning towards her. His regret is evidently genuine, indeed, to Hardinge the evening is an ill-spent one that precludes his dancing with Perpetua Wynter. "Yes?" she looks up at him from her low lounge amongst the palms. "Well, so am I, do you know!" telling the truth openly, yet with an evident sense of shame. "But I don't dance now because--it is selfish, isn't it?--because I should be so unhappy afterwards if I _did_!" "A perfect reason," says Hardinge very earnestly. He is still leaning towards her, his elbows on his knees, his eyes on hers. It is an intent gaze that seldom wanders, and in truth why should it? Where is any other thing as good to look at as this small, fair creature, with the eyes, and the hair, and the lips that belong to her? He has taken possession of her fan, and gently, lovingly, as though indeed it is part of her, is holding it, raising it sometimes to sweep the feathers of it across his lips. "Do you think so?" says she, as if a little puzzled. "Well, I confess I don't like the moments when I hate myself. We all hate ourselves sometimes, don't we?" looking at him as if doubtfully, "or is it only I myself, who----" "Oh, no!" says Hardinge. "_All!_ All of us detest ourselves now and again, or at least we think we do. It comes to the same thing, but you--you have no cause." "I should have if I danced," says she, "and I couldn't bear the after reproach, so I don't do it." "And yet--yet you would _like_ to dance?" "I don't know----" She hesitates, and suddenly looks up at him with eyes as full of sorrow as of mirth. "At all events I know _this_," says she, "that I wish the band would not play such nice waltzes!" Hardinge gives way to laughter, and presently she laughs too, but softly, and as if afraid of being heard, and as if too a little ashamed of herself. Her color rises, a delicate warm color that renders her absolutely adorable. "Shall I order them to stop?" asks Hardinge, laughing still, yet with something in his gaze that tells her he _would_ forbid them to play if he could, if only to humor her. "No!" says she, "and after all,"--philosophically--"enjoyment is only a name." "That's all!" says Hardinge, smiling. "But a very good one." "Let us forget it," with a little sigh, "and talk of something else, something pleasanter." "Than enjoyment?" She gives way to his mood and laughs afresh. "Ah! you have me there!" says she. "I have not, indeed," he returns, quietly and with meaning. "Neither there, nor anywhere." He gets up suddenly, and going to her, bends over the chair on which she is sitting. "We were talking of what?" asks she, with admirable courage, "of names, was it not? An endless subject. _My_ name now? An absurd one surely. Perpetua! I don't like Perpetua, do you?" She is evidently talking at random. "I do indeed!" says Hardinge, promptly and fervently. His tone accentuates his meaning. "Oh, but so harsh, so unusual!"