'Your toes!' cried Desvoeux, with effusion: 'He wanted to adore them, as I do--sweet points where all the concentrated poetry of your being gathers. Put out that fairy little satin shoe and let me adore them too!' 'No, thank you!' cried Maud, greatly taken aback at so unexpected a request, gathering her feet instinctively beneath her; 'it's not the fashion!' 'You will not?' Desvoeux said, with a tone of sincere disappointment. 'Is not that unkind? Suppose it was the fashion to cover up your hands in tulle and satin and never to show them?' 'Then,' Maud said, laughing, 'you would not be able to adore them either; as it is, you see, you may worship them as much as you please!' 'I have been worshipping them all the evening. They are lovely--a little pair of sprites.' 'Stop!' cried Maud, 'and let me see. My shoes are fairies, and my dancing a poem, and my fingers sprites! How very poetical! And, pray, is this the sort of way that people always talk at balls?' 'Not most people,' said Desvoeux, unabashed, 'because they are geese and talk in grooves--about the weather and the last appointment and the freshest bit of stale gossip; but it is the way _I_ talk, because I only say what I feel and am perfectly natural.' 'Natural!' said Maud, in a tone of some surprise, for her companion's romantic extravagance seemed to her to be the very climax of unreality. 'Yes,' said Desvoeux, coolly, 'and that is one reason why all women like me; partly it is for my good looks, of course, and partly for my dancing, but mostly because I am natural and tell the truth to them.' 'And partly, I suppose,' said Maud, who began to think her companion was in great need of setting down, 'because you are so modest?' 'As to that, I am just as modest as my neighbours, only I speak out. One knows when one is good-looking, does one not? and why pretend to be a simpleton? You know, for instance, how very, very pretty you are looking to-night!' 'We were talking about _you_, if you please,' said Maud, blushing scarlet, and conscious of a truth of which her mirror had informed her. 'Agreeable topic,' said the other gaily; 'let us return to it by all means! Well, now, I pique myself on being natural. When I am bored I yawn or go away; when I dislike people I show my teeth and snarl; and when I lose my heart I don't suffer in silence, but inform the fair purloiner of that valuable organ of the theft without hesitation. That is honest, at any rate. For instance, I pressed your hand to-night, when you came in first, to tell you how delighted I was that you were come to be the belle of the party. You did not mind it, you know!' 'I thought you very impertinent,' said Maud, laughing in spite of herself; 'and so I think you now, and very conceited into the bargain. Will you take me to have some tea, please?' 'With all my heart,' said the other; 'but we can go on with our talk. How nice it is that we are such friends, is it not?'