his palm, a short screw. It was evidently his greatest
treasure, for the moment.

"Is that for me, Thomas?" I asked. "Nope," he said, shaking his head.

"Is it your very own?"

"Yeth," said Thomas, drawing in his breath. He shut his little hand, put
out his tongue just the smallest bit, and became serious and silent.

"Is it a present?" I asked. Having got so far, it seemed a pity not
to go on. He had done me the greatest honor that a small boy can do a
woman, which, by the way, was what our Nannie said when she told us that
a strange man had proposed to her on a penny steamboat.

Thomas shook his head and said, "Nope."

"Did you find it?" I asked.

He nodded. "I always find fings," he said.

Beyond that I could get nothing out of him. I have not often sat out
with a more embarrassing partner. To be continually stared at and
never spoken to would, I think, make the boldest woman shy. There was
a stolidity about Thomas that promised well for England's future. There
was a steady resistance from attack that was really admirable; but I was
not altogether sorry when Fraulein pounced upon him. As she led him off
I heard him say, "Parties do last a long time, don't they, Leilein?"

Having lost Thomas, I sought a new partner. A tall, fair girl with
wide, gray eyes, a pink-and-white complexion, a beautiful mouth, and a
delicately refined nose, interested me, as I imagine she has continued
to do every one who has met her. She reminded me of spring, with birds
singing and flowers flowering and trees bursting, just as Diana does.
As it was quite the correct thing for girls to dance with one another, I
made so bold as to ask her for a dance. With the timidity of a boy just
out of Etons, or perhaps I should say, of a shy boy just out of Etons, I
approached her. "Right-o," she said, "let's see."

She puckered her penciled eyebrows and studied her program. "The third
after the two next?"

She bowed gravely, and I said, "Thank you." I felt very young and
inexperienced as I returned the bow.

"That's all right," she said. "Where shall I find you? It doesn't
matter, I shall know you again"; and she had the audacity to write on
her program, for I saw her do it, "white dress, red hair."

She was borne off by a triumphant boy, who looked at me as much as to
say, "You're jolly well sold if you think you are going to nab this
dance."

I asked a hungry-looking boy with many freckles who she was. "Oh! that's
Dolly," he said; "sh