nce her thoughts flew on to much
later when she was gliding through the dancing crowd at the ball. His
eyes had followed her everywhere. But there was a change in their
expression. To her it was a complete change. To her the simple
approval had been replaced by a gleam of sympathetic concern. But this
was after--after the first cloud had settled upon her hope of unalloyed
enjoyment. Perhaps the look had not been there at all. Perhaps it was
simply her own feelings finding reflection for her where none existed.

She became impatient with herself and grasped at the memory of Jeff's
greeting when she had first appeared in the hotel parlor, equipped for
the reception.

He had not said much. But that was always Jeff's way. But there had
been his quick smile of unusual satisfaction. And the words of
greeting had sprung quite spontaneously to his lips.

"Say, Nan, you're--you're just great."

The hesitation in the middle of it had told her even more than his
smiling admiration. It was almost like--and she thrilled as she
thought it--a gasp for breath.

She strove hard to support herself with these memories, out even as she
considered them her mind passed on to the reception, and that stupid
ache supervened once more. Instantly her focus narrowed down. There
were only two figures in it. The rest merely provided a setting for
these two. All the lights, the decorations, the beautiful costumes and
smiling faces, these became an indistinct blurr, leaving the image of
Mrs. Elvine van Blooren and a man standing vividly out.

What a wonderful, wonderful picture of radiant womanhood Mrs. Van
Blooren had made! Even in her trouble Nan was generous. The woman was
beautiful in a way that poor Nan had only dreamed of. The Madonna-like
features, calm, perfect. The dark hair, superb in the simplicity of
its dressing. She remembered that at the first glance it had suggested
to her the sheen of a cloudless summer night. And her gown, and her
figure. The gown must have cost--ah, Nan could not appraise its cost.
She had had insufficient experience. Her own maximum had been reached
only now, and the sum seemed to her as paltry as her father had made it
appear. The one certainty that remained with her, however, was that
the taste displayed in Mrs. Van Blooren's gown had placed it beyond
such a thing as mere material value.

And then her heart had seemed to stand still. It appeared that Jeff,
who was talking to some