omin' acrost the bridge. There's Locker's boy and that there
Wife-ette, and him lookin' like he'd enjoy divin' down her throat."

"Poor Jason," said the elder, "he's reapin' the whirlwind."

"Kin he be blind?"

"Somebody ought to take Jason off to one side and give him warnin'."

The deacon considered, puckering his thin lips and cocking a hard old
eye. "'Tain't fer us to meddle," he said, righteously. "They's a divine
plan in ever'thing, and we hain't able to see what's behind all this
here. We'll jest set and wait the outcome."

That is what all Coldriver did: it sat and awaited the outcome with
ill-restrained enthusiasm, and while it waited it talked. No word or
gesture or movement of young Homer Locker and Yvette Hinchbrooke went
undiscussed. Nobody in town was unaware of Homer's infatuation for the
coffee demonstrator--with the one exception of Homer's father, who was
too busy waiting upon the unaccustomed rush of trade to notice anything
else.

On the fourth evening of Yvette's stay in Coldriver there was a dance in
the town hall. Especial interest immediately, attached to this affair
because of the speculations as to whether Homer would be so rash as to
invite Yvette as his partner. The village refused to believe the young
man would fail them and remain away. That would be a calamity not easily
endured, so it set itself to plan its actions in case she made her
appearance. It wondered, how she would dress and how she would behave.

Every girl in the village who possessed clear title to a young man knew
exactly how _she_ would deport herself. The night before the dance no
less than a score of young men were informed with finality that they
were not to dance with the stranger, nor to be seen in her vicinity.
Norma Grainger expressed the will of all when she told Will Peasley that
if he danced one dance with that coffee girl she would up and go home
alone. In the beginning there was no definite concerted action; it was
assured, however, that Yvette would have few partners.

Homer did not disappoint his friends. During the first dance he entered
the hall with Yvette, and the music all but stopped to stare. Undeniably
she was pretty. It was not her prettiness the women resented, however,
but her air and her clothes. Actually she wore a dress cut low at the
neck, and sleeveless. Coldriver had heard of such garments, and there
were those who actually believed them to exist and to be worn by certain
women in Europ