"But you can't go through life without dancing!" "Oh no, of course not." "Really I think it's just too selfish of you. You know how I adore it. Why won't you try? I do believe you're afraid of being laughed at." Skippy smiled craftily to himself. "Well, perhaps I'll have a try." "That's what you've said every time," said Miss Dolly, shrugging her shoulders. Skippy bided his opportunity until the third two-step had begun and the claimants for the favorite's hand were congregating. "I'm sitting this out with Jack," said Dolly, with a sigh. "Say, a fossil who can't dance oughtn't to have any rights around here, nohow," said Happy Mather. "You're only a clothes horse anyway, Skippy." Dolly burst out laughing at this, which pained Skippy exceedingly. "Oh, any chump can dance if he wants to." "You think so?" "Sure. Easiest thing in the world if I wanted to." "Easy?" "Sure. Just keeping in time, that's all." "Here's a dollar you can't get three times around the room." Skippy pretended to hesitate. "I'll pay another dollar any day to see a circus," said Joe Crocker, beginning to smirk. "Dolly, hold the money," said Skippy. Miss Dolly looked up in some consternation for the group now numbered a half a dozen and the floor was vast and bare. "Don't you want to wait a little?" she said with a glance at Crocker, who was nudging his neighbor. "What's the use?" said Skippy. "Now tell me again what I do." "Two steps with the left forward and then two steps with the right. Hold my arm so," said Dolly a little breathlessly. "Hold on tight, Skippy," said Happy Mather. "Step on your own feet." "Balance on your heels." "Don't let them rattle you, Jack." "They can't. Which foot do I start on?" "The left." "Shall we give him a push, Dolly?" said Lazelle sympathetically, while his companions, linking arms, were beaming with anticipated delight. Skippy, having properly worked up his audience, nodded to his partner and floated off in a perfect dancing style. "Jack, you wretch, you've danced for years!" said Dolly after the first surprise had passed. "You've just been making fun of me all this time." "Never been on a ballroom floor before in my life," said Skippy, keeping within the letter of the truth. "Why you're wonderful, Jack! But then how could you--" "It's mental, everything is mental," said Skippy conceitedly. "I just watched till I got it in my mind and the rest was easy. Thanks for the long green. Hello, what's become of our little gallery of nuts?" Whether or not Dolly was entirely convinced by this casual explanation, the immediate return to Skippy was enormous. Not only were the claimants to her affections completely distanced, but Miss Dolly, for a time, adopted an attitude of respect and deference towards him, which had formerly been totally lacking.