"I should not have thought it," he said. "It is a very nice dress, is it not?" and he looked more carefully at the girl who was dancing in her dead mother's wedding-dress with the passion-flowers half falling from the satin girdle that bound the slender waist--the girl who was so pretty and happy in the lamplight and moonlight, and so tanned and shabby by daylight. "I have heard of 'gas-light beauties,' Miss Earle," he said carelessly. "I suppose Miss Meredith must belong to that class." Violet felt uncomfortable, she could not have told why, for she had only spoken what she felt to be true. "Yes," she answered, "I suppose so. I have known Lina Meredith all my life, or nearly, but I never thought her pretty until to-night. To-morrow we will call upon her at her own home. You may see for yourself how different she will appear." "I shall be pleased to go--thank you," said Ronald Valchester. "Is Miss Meredith the only daughter?" Violet looked at him surprised. "Why, of course," she began, then stopped, and said deprecatingly: "I have, perhaps, done Lina an injustice in speaking of her as I have to you, Mr. Valchester. I thought you knew that she is an orphan. It isn't her fault that she must go shabby and neglected. She is poor, and has no one to love her." Violet looked very pretty in the thoughtful student's eyes just then--much prettier than she had five minutes ago. As he clasped the little hand in the winding figures of the gay dance, he thought that the touch of womanly pity in her voice was very winning. More than once he looked at the slender figure of Jaquelina, as it whirled past him lightly, with a new interest in his eyes. She had been simply a pretty, interesting girl to him before, in whose radiant face he had vaguely read something that prompted him to give her the passion-flowers. Now the vibrating chord of sympathy in his nature had been touched by those simple words: "She has no one to love her." When that dance was over and Violet had been claimed by another partner, he went up to Jaquelina. "You have not danced with me yet," he said. "Will you give me the next dance, Miss Meredith?" "You must excuse me, Mr. Valchester," she replied, with a smile, "I have promised the next dance to your friend, Mr. Earle." CHAPTER VII. Jaquelina saw that the young student looked surprised. "You have danced with Walter Earle twice already," he said. "Do you not know that it is not considered _en regle_ to dance more than twice with the same partner?" She looked at him, puzzled, for an instant. Then the long lashes drooped, and the ready color flashed into her cheek as she answered. "I do not think I understand what _en regle_ means, Mr. Valchester." "I beg your pardon for using a French phrase," said Ronald Valchester, uncertain whether she was in earnest or meant to rebuke him. "I am aware that the habit is considered an affectation, but one falls into these things so naturally at college, you know, Miss Meredith."