"Very well, young top!" he murmured courteously, "I surrender my daughter to your mercies." The two danced away, Blair holding his prize as if he did not know quite what to do with her now that he had got her. "For goodness' sake, take _hold_ of me!" she instructed after a moment. "I feel as if I were about to float out of your grasp. I won't break, you know!" Archie obediently held her tighter, murmuring, "Pardon _me_!" He danced surprisingly well, as if he were really listening to the music, Joan thought. She did not trouble to talk to him, therefore. "So that was your father," he said after a long and anxious silence. "Why, he's a peach, hopping around like that at his age!" "Rather more of a pear, don't you think? As to figure?" suggested Joan; for the Major's tendency to _embonpoint_ had increased remarkably since his marriage. Blair threw back his head and gently roared. He was one of the people who always made Joan feel herself a wit of the first water. Yet she was a little sorry he had come to-night. She had sent him the card to her début ball by way of repaying an obligation. He had been very thoughtful on the train about getting her fruit and papers--almost too thoughtful; and had insisted, somewhat to Joan's embarrassment, on paying for the two meals they had taken together in the dining-car. She did not care to remain in debt to a stranger; hence the invitation. But she had not, somehow, expected him to take advantage of it. Since he was here, however, she must do what she could for him. She knew what it was to be a stranger in a gay throng. "Do you know any girls?" she asked. "Not to speak to--though I've seen some of the young ladies on the street, of course. This is the first time I've ever been out in Society," he explained simply. "Yes? I'm a débutante too, you know. And how do you like Society, so far?" "Fine, fine!" he told her. "Better even than I thought it was. Makes the movie pictures of it look sort of silly." "You ought to go to the Horse Show next week if you find this sort of thing interesting. I hear it is to be something splendiferous!" "I will," he assured her, earnestly. "And now I'd better introduce you to some other people." She shook her head smilingly at a youth who was about to touch him on the shoulder. After all, one owes something to the duties of hospitality. "Though really you don't have to _meet_ girls at a thing like this before you ask them to dance. I don't know the names of half the men I dance with." "You don't?" he repeated incredulously, wondering what Miss Emma or Miss Grace would think of that! He decided not to tell them. "I reckon I'd rather be introduced first though, if you don't mind," he murmured--"I--I wouldn't know just what to call 'em."