But when he finally did discover her he stood quite still, and for an
instant doubted if it were she. The girl he saw seemed to be a more
beautiful sister of the Miss Morris he knew--a taller, fairer, and more
radiant personage; and he feared that it was not she, until he
remembered that this was the first time he had ever seen her with her
hair dressed high upon her head, and in the more distinguished
accessories of a décolleté gown and train. Miss Morris had her hand on
the arm of one of the equerries, who was battling good-naturedly with
the crowd, and trying to draw her away from two persistent youths in
diplomatic uniform who were laughing and pressing forward in close
pursuit on the other side. Carlton approached her with a certain
feeling of diffidence, which was most unusual to him, and asked if she
were dancing.
"Mr. Carlton shall decide for me," Miss Morris said, dropping the
equerry's arm and standing beside the American. "I have promised all
of these gentlemen," she explained, "to dance with them, and now they
won't agree as to which is to dance first. They've wasted half this
waltz already in discussing it, and they make it much more difficult by
saying that no matter how I decide, they will fight duels with the one
I choose, which is most unpleasant for me."
"Most unpleasant for the gentleman you choose, too," suggested Carlton.
"So," continued Miss Morris, "I have decided to leave it to you."
"Well, if I am to arbitrate between the powers," said Carlton, with a
glance at the three uniforms, "my decision is that as they insist on
fighting duels in any event, you had better dance with me until they
have settled it between them, and then the survivor can have the next
dance."
"That's a very good idea," said Miss Morris; and taking Carlton's arm,
she bowed to the three men and drew away.
"Mr. Carlton," said the equerry, with a bow, "has added another
argument in favor of maintaining standing armies, and of not submitting
questions to arbitration."
"Let's get out of this," said Carlton. "You don't want to dance, do
you? Let us go where it's cool."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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