Still she laughed and shook her head. “It isn't that I don't want to! I'd rather dance than do anything in the world--except ride horseback.” “I might have known you were a horsewoman. Do you ride much?” “Not now.” “The Doctor doesn't care for it, I suppose?” She flashed a questioning glance at him, then she looked away: “No,” she said, “he doesn't care for it.” Cropsie Decker, who had been hovering in her vicinity, now came up and claimed the next number. “There's a bully little corner in the conservatory where we can sit out this waltz. You won't mind if I carry her off, Mr. Horton?” “Not if she takes to heart some of the wise things I've been telling her,” said Horton, looking at her through his narrow eyes and pulling at his small, fair mustache. “Au revoir, Madame Beaux Yeux!” Miss Lady did not move from the spot where he left her. Out under the palms in the hall, the orchestra was beginning one of Strauss' most distracting waltzes; her fingers tapped the time. Suddenly she held out her hand to Cropsie. “I can't stand it another minute! I've got to dance once if I never dance again!” Every eye in the ballroom followed the slender figure, as it circled in and out among the throng. Miss Lady danced with the grace and abandonment of a child. She had given herself utterly to the joy of the moment. She was letting herself go for the first time since her marriage, following the glad impulse of her heart, and dancing as a Bacchante might have danced alone on a moonlight night in some forest glade. When at last the music stopped Cropsie drew her into the conservatory. “Here, come around this palm, quick! They'll all be after you for the next dance. Gerald Ivy is charging around now looking for you, and so is Mr. Horton. Sit there in the window and cool off!” She sank laughing and breathless on the window sill. All the exhilaration of the dance was in her eyes, her lips were parted, her cheeks flushed, and a strand of loosened hair fell across her shoulder. It was at this moment that wheels sounded on the driveway below, caused her to lean idly out to see who was coming. A wagon stopped at the side entrance, and a man alighted. Uncle Jimpson's voice was heard asking a question, then came the other man's voice, in quick, incisive answer. Miss Lady, sitting motionless, looking down, turned suddenly from the window. The color had left her face and her hand trembled visibly against the curtain. “What's the matter?” cried Cropsie; “are you ill? Did you dance too long?” “It's nothing, I'm all right. That is I will be--” “Can't I get you some water, or an ice, or call Mrs. Sequin?” “No, no, please! It's nothing. I'll slip off to the dressing-room until I feel better. I can go through here up the side stairs.” “Wait, I'll go with you. You are as white as if you'd seen a ghost!” But before he could join her she had disappeared into mysterious regions where he dared not follow. CHAPTER XVII