She was very quiet as they drove down Fifth Street. Only once she spoke. "It was the seventh step, wasn't it, Eveley?" "Yes, the seventh." "The Revolution of the Seventh Step," she said, laughing again. This was nonsense to Lem Landis, but he did not ask questions. Women always talked such rot to each other. And he was wondering if Mrs. Cartle would surely be at the ball? "The way Lem does." The words were startlingly sufficient. From five years of painful experience, Mrs. Landis knew how Lem did it. And so on this evening, as she stood beside him in a corner of the ballroom after their first greetings, and looked as he did with eager speculative eyes about the wide room, seeking, seeking, she felt a curious sympathy and harmony between herself and her husband. She knew without turning her head when the sudden brightening in his eyes came; and then he slowly made his way to the dim corner where Mrs. Cartle sat waiting. But Miriam was not so quickly satisfied. There was Dan O'Falley, but his was such fulsome effrontery. There was Clifford Eggleton, but he had been a sweetheart of Miriam's in the old days before Lem came, and that seemed hardly fair. There was Hal Jervis, but he was too utterly wax in woman's hands to give her any semblance of thrill. Then her eyes rested on a profile in another corner of the room--a dark sleek head, a dark thin face, and the clear outline of one merry eye. Miriam appraised the head speculatively. Who in the world could it be? That merry eye looked very enticing. Ah, now she could see better--he was talking to the Merediths. Then the merry-eyed one was a stranger--so much the better, the uncertainty of him pleased her. She was very weary of those she knew so well. She moved happily that way, suddenly surprised to know that she was not at all concerned because her husband sat in the distant corner with Mrs. Cartle. She felt for him to-night only a whimsical comradeship. Stopping many times on her way to exchange a word and a smile, she finally drew near the corner where the sleek dark head and the merry eye had drawn her. Mrs. Meredith, seeing her, came to meet her, and drew her forward impulsively. "Oh, Miriam, you must meet our friend, Mr. Cameron. He has only just come here to be with my husband in business, and we are going to love him, I know." And so immediately Miriam found herself looking directly, and with great pleasure, full into the merry eyes. The gown was beautiful upon her, she knew it positively, whether Lem had been stirred by the vision or not. "Oh, she is lovely enough," said Billy Meredith plaintively. "But don't be lured by her, Cameron. She is still in love with her husband." Miriam smiled at her victim with disarming friendliness. "But I like to be amused," she said. "And I have been married long enough now to feel like playing again."