Mr. Parcher smiled. “How I happen to know is a secret,” he said. “I forgot about that. His little sister, Jane, told me that Mrs. Baxter had hidden it, or something, so that Willie couldn't wear it, but I guess Jane wouldn't mind my telling YOU that she told me especially as they're letting him use it again to-night. I suppose he feels grander 'n the King o' Siam!” “No,” Mrs. Parcher returned, thoughtfully. “I don't think he does, just now.” Her gaze was fixed upon the dancing-platform, which most of the dancers were abandoning as the music fell away to an interval of silence. In the center of the platform there remained one group, consisting of Miss Pratt and five orators, and of the orators the most impassioned and gesticulative was William. “They all seem to want to dance with her all the time,” said Mrs. Parcher. “I heard her telling one of the boys, half an hour ago, that all she could give him was either the twenty-eighth regular dance or the sixteenth 'extra.'” “The what?” Mr. Parcher demanded, whirling to face her. “Do they think this party's going to keep running till day after to-morrow?” And then, as his eyes returned to the group on the platform, “That boy seems to have quite a touch of emotional insanity,” he remarked, referring to William. “What IS the matter with him?” “Oh, nothing,” his wife returned. “Only trying to arrange a dance with her. He seems to be in difficulties.” XXVI MISS BOKE Nothing could have been more evident than William's difficulties. They continued to exist, with equal obviousness, when the group broke up in some confusion, after a few minutes of animated discussion; Mr. Wallace Banks, that busy and executive youth, bearing Miss Pratt triumphantly off to the lemonade-punch-bowl, while William pursued Johnnie Watson and Joe Bullitt. He sought to detain them near the edge of the platform, though they appeared far from anxious to linger in his company; and he was able to arrest their attention only by clutching an arm of each. In fact, the good feeling which had latterly prevailed among these three appeared to be in danger of disintegrating. The occasion was too vital; and the watchword for “Miss Pratt's last night” was Devil-Take-the-Hindmost! “Now you look here, Johnnie,” William said, vehemently, “and you listen, too, Joe! You both got seven dances apiece with her, anyway, all on account of my not getting here early enough, and you got to--” “It wasn't because of any such reason,” young Mr. Watson protested. “I asked her for mine two days ago.” “Well, THAT wasn't fair, was it?” William cried. “Just because I never thought of sneaking in ahead like that, you go and--” “Well, you ought to thought of it,” Johnnie retorted, jerking his arm free of William's grasp. “I can't stand here GABBIN' all night!” And he hurried away. “Joe,” William began, fastening more securely upon Mr. Bullitt--“Joe, I've done a good many favors for you, and--”