for being
late. I wanted to be here every little second to see you enjoy
yourself." She put her lips closer to Marcia's ear, whispering: "You
are the prettiest thing to-night I ever saw!"

Marcia shook her head, her eyes filled with frank wonder.

"Don't fib, Judith, dear," she answered. And, for Marcia, she was very
grave. "I know you have a glass in your room. You wonderful,
wonderful Judith!"

Their voices were indistinct to Bud Lee. Now at the moment when she
was so rich in the splendor of her own sweet femininity he filled his
heart with her. Judith had come in the only way Judith could come,
surrendering herself utterly to the hour.

She turned to him, no surprise at his own costume in her happy eyes,
and gave him her cool hand. A swift tremor ran through him at the
contact, a tremor which was like that of the night in the cabin, which
he could not conceal, which Judith must notice. She said something,
but he let the words go, holding only the vibrant music of the voice.

She had stirred him, and now he did not seek a theory for a buckler;
the sight of her, the brushing of her fingers against his, made riotous
tumult in his blood.

The first strains of a waltz joined the lure of Judith's warm
loveliness, whispering, counselling, commanding: "Take her." Marcia
gasped and stepped back, startled by the look she saw in the eyes of
this man who, having spoken no word since Judith came, put out his arms
and took her into them. Judith flashed at him a look of quick wonder.
His face was almost stern; no hint of a smile had come into his eyes.
He merely caught her to him as though she were his, and swung her out
into the whirl of dancers.

"You are rather--abrupt, aren't you?" said Judith coolly.

"Am I?" he asked gravely. "I don't know. It seems to me that I have
been loitering, just loitering while----"

He didn't attempt to finish. He held Judith in his arms while for him
the room was emptied of its gay throng, the music no longer pulsed; its
beat was in the rhythm of their bodies, swaying as one.

The dance over, she was lost to him in the crowd of men who came
eagerly to her. His eyes followed her wherever she went. A slow anger
kindled in his heart that she should let other men talk with her, that
she should suffer another man to take her in his arms.

A number of country dances followed. He stood by the door waiting a
little before he went again to Judith. He saw Marcia across the room