"Why, I'm really enjoying myself," she remarked naively in a pause between the laughter. "And I had feared it was going to be such a slow affair." "At your age," Mrs Lawless answered, "no dance should prove slow." "That depends," retorted Julie. "But, of course, you've never experienced the pain of sitting out." "I usually sit out," Mrs Lawless answered. "I am no dancer. But there is pleasure in watching others enjoy themselves." "Oh yes!" Julie replied. "Anyone could enjoy that when the sitting out wasn't compulsory." "I see." Mrs Lawless laughed. "A little discipline of that nature isn't exactly harmful," she said. Julie laughed too. "I always hated discipline," she said. "I can't understand any girl sitting out," Van Bleit interposed. "That men can't find partners is common enough. There are plenty of fellows supporting the door-posts to-night." "Yes; but they want amusing," Julie returned brightly. "They won't give their services for nothing." "There is something very decadent in the sound of that," Mrs Lawless remarked. Before rising, she leaned across the table and addressed herself directly to the girl. "Do you ever get as far as Rondebosch?" she asked. "I get farther than that," Julie answered. "I cycle, you know." "Then, take pity on my loneliness. I am an Englishwoman, unused to the Colony. Will you ride out to see me some day?" "Of course I will... Any time you wish." "Come to-morrow... I will be at home to no one else..." "Lucky little girl!" murmured Van Bleit, as he escorted Mrs Lawless from the supper-room. "She enjoys a privilege that many would envy her... You never ask _me_ to visit you..." She looked at him steadily. "Perhaps some day I shall do that," she answered, and smiled at him, a smile so kind and gentle that it set Van Bleit's heart beating high with expectation, and a hope he did not often dare to indulge. When he had assisted her into her motor and shut the door upon her, he took the hand she extended to him and raised it to his lips. The car drove off and left him standing in the roadway, looking after it with a complacent smile widening the corners of his sensual mouth. Truly he had a way with women! He had never known any woman who could stand out against him for long. As he turned and started to walk in the opposite direction from that taken by the car, a figure loomed suddenly out of the darkness and, with a word of greeting, came to a halt in front of him. Van Bleit recognised the sallow, bearded face, the darkness notwithstanding, and instinctively his right hand went to his breast pocket in a manner that brought a smile to the lips of the man who had accosted him. Recovering himself almost immediately, he feigned to be searching for his cigar-case, which eventually he produced, and leisurely proceeded to abstract a cigar therefrom. While thus employed, he replied to the brief salutation of the new-comer with the sarcastic observation: