"I suppose we'll have to go back to the crowd," admitted Max, and they returned just in time to see the first guests taking their leave. When all had gone, Jarvis hunted up Sally. He found her in one of the dressing-rooms, extinguishing candles which had nearly burned to the bottoms of the lanterns, and were threatening their inflammable surroundings. "Here, don't touch those things, with your thin clothes on!" Jarvis cried. "We fellows must go round and make all safe--no taking any chances with the house full of dry corn-stalks. But first--have you had a good time to-night?" "A glorious time. All the evening I've felt as if I lived here--it looked so furnished, somehow, with all the lights and decorations." "It made you want to live here more than ever, didn't it?" "It did, indeed. And in ten days we shall be going back to town," "Perhaps you won't." She stared at him. "What in the world do you mean?" "I don't mean anything," said he, laughing. "I'm like a small boy bursting with the secret information that there's to be ice-cream for dinner. So I don't mean anything--but I'd like to shake hands on it, just the same." "Jarvis!" She let him seize both her hands and shake them up and down. "You do mean something!" "Come out in the hall and do the corn-stalk prance with me." "The corn-stalk prance! What in the world is that? Are you crazy?" "I'll teach it to you," and he led her out into the wide hall, which had been all the evening the most attractive spot in the house. He pulled two stalks from one of the sheaves which stood on each side of the great fireplace. He handed her one, and throwing the other across his shoulder as if it were a gun, marched to the drawing-room door. The musicians were just putting away their instruments, having played till the last guests were out of hearing. "Just one more, will you?" he asked, grinning at them in a way which they understood meant an extra fee. Then he came back to Sally. "Now for it!" he said. "I never did this myself,--nor heard of it--but if we can't do an impromptu turn to-night, on our high spirits, we never can again. Come on!"--as the music burst forth. And he made her an impressive bow. Smiling, and ready enough to follow his lead, Sally returned him a sweeping courtesy, in minuet style. "Hi, what's this?" cried Bob, returning from the porch, where he, with the others, had been watching the departure of the procession of carriages and automobiles which had borne the guests away. "Here, come and see what's going on!" he shouted back to the porch, and they came hurrying in. Mrs. Burnside and Donald Ferry, Josephine and Max, Mrs. Ferry and Alec and Uncle Timothy ranged themselves along the walls, their faces all enjoyment of the somewhat remarkable affair now in progress.