The little gay town, when they reached it, was at full tide, with pianos banging in the open-windowed houses, guitars twanging in the streets, and lines of young men marching along the pavements and singing in chorus. The girls, fresh from their twinkling village by the lonely hills, with the river burrowing under the darkness of the bridge, were almost dizzy with the sights and sounds. When they came skipping down the steep streets to the front, and plunged into the electric light which illuminated the bay, they could scarcely restrain themselves from running. And when, bubbling with the animal life which had been suppressed, famished and starved in them, they passed through the turn-stile to the dancing-palace and hurried down the tunnel of trees, lit by coloured lamps, and saw the stream of white light which came from the open door, and heard the crash of the band and the drumming of the dancers within, their feet were scarcely touching the ground and they felt as if they wanted to fly. And when at last, having entered the hall, the whole blazing scene burst on them in a blinding flash, they drew up with a breathless gasp. "Oh! Oh!" One moment they stood by the door with blinking and sparkling eyes, their linked arms quivering in close grip. Then Bessie, who was the first to recover from the intoxicating shock, looked up and around, and saw Stowell and Gell sitting in the gallery. "Good sakes alive," she whispered, "they're there!" "Who? The gentlemen?" "Yes, in the front row. Be quiet, girl. They see us. Don't look up. They might come down." And then the girls laughed with glee at their conscious make-believe, and their arms quivered again to the rush of their warm blood. IV "Alick, isn't that our young friend of the glen?" "Bessie Collister? Where?" "Down there, standing with the fair girl, just inside the door." "Well, yes, upon my word, I think it is!" "I've a great mind to go down to them. Let us go." "No? Really? In a place like this?" "Why not, man?" "Well, if you don't mind, I don't." A few minutes later, in an interval between the dances, Victor, coming behind Bessie, touched her on the shoulder. "How are those sweet-smelling heifers----still grazing on the mountains?" Bessie, who had watched the young men coming downstairs, and felt them at her back, turned with a look of surprise, then laughed merrily and introduced Susie. For a few nervous moments there were the light nothings which at such times are the only wisdom. Then the violins began to flourish for another dance, and the two couples paired off--Victor with Bessie and Susie with Gell. Victor took Bessie's hand with a certain delicacy to which she was quite unaccustomed and which flattered her greatly. The dance was a waltz, and she had never waltzed before, so they had to go carefully at first, but when the dance was coming to an end she was swinging to the rhythm of the orchestra as if she had waltzed a hundred times.