"But it's a question with me whether I haven't lost my chance," he persisted. He sat down, dejectedly. Then he laughed. "Do you know why I'm like the Juniata River?" he demanded. "I'm not good at guessing," she answered, wondering whether he was laying a trap for her. "Why, Captain Wheelock told somebody that it was because I am very beautiful and very shallow." He did not laugh with her. "Those things aren't funny to me any more," he declared, scowling. "But to be called beautiful--" "No man is beautiful," he returned savagely. "No man wants to be called that. It's my eye-glasses, I suppose." He took them off and played with them. "Maybe they do make me look dudish. I'd wear spectacles if they didn't cut my ears. Or I might go without and come to a sudden end by walking over some lonely precipice." He expected her to remonstrate, but she said: "Well, I'll promise not to tell the new visitors about you;" as if, of course, this was what he had been leading up to. "I don't care anything about them." "I'm sorry. I had rather counted on you, as the only person here who has met them,--and an old friend of the family." He stood up again. "But I don't want to be your friend--" "Oh!" She seized and fortified all the strategic positions. "This is certainly surprising in you, Warrick Raridan, after all the years I've known you. I didn't expect to be renounced so early." He stood looking at her quizzically, and too fixedly for her comfort. "Tragedy doesn't become the Juniata type of beauty. You'd better sit down." He had been pacing the floor, but now threw himself into a chair. "That chair," she continued, "is a relic of the Inquisition. If you'll move those cushions about a little on the divan you'll be a lot more comfortable." He mumbled that he didn't want to be comfortable, but obeyed. "Now, if you'll be good," she went on tranquilly, folding her arms and looking at him benignantly, "I'll tell you a secret." He had thrust his hands into his pockets and sat watching her sulkily. "Well?" "I'm to be queen of the ball, sir, I'm to be queen of the ball." "I'm sorry I can't congratulate you," he said grimly. "You have no business mixing up with their infernal idiocy. I've been expecting to hear that you'd refused." He grew hot as he went on. "Your father oughtn't to make you do such a thing." "Warry!" She sat up straight and bent toward him in an attitude of remonstrance; "you really mustn't! Why, I'm amazed at you!" The enormity of the thing, as Raridan saw it, had grown on him since his talk with Saxton, and he did not relent; but he relaxed his severity for the moment, to assume an aggrieved air. "Maybe I'm presuming too far on old acquaintance!" he said gloomily. "I still have that copy of Aldrich you gave me once,--you remember that they 'Met as acquaintances meet, Smiling, tranquil-eyed-- Not even the least little beat Of the heart, upon either side!'