eps and runs, of all the whimsical turns and twirlings, of all the
rhythmic swayings and dips commanded that season by such blarings as
were the barbaric product, loud and wild, of the Jazz Louies and their
half-breed bunches, the thin and sallow youth was a master. Upon his
face could be seen contempt of the easy marvels he performed as he
moved in swift precision from one smooth agility to another; and if some
too-dainty or jealous cavalier complained that to be so much a stylist
in dancing was "not quite like a gentleman," at least Walter's style was
what the music called for. No other dancer in the room could be thought
comparable to him. Alice told him so.

"It's wonderful!" she said. "And the mystery is, where you ever learned
to DO it! You never went to dancing-school, but there isn't a man in the
room who can dance half so well. I don't see why, when you dance like
this, you always make such a fuss about coming to parties."

He sounded his brief laugh, a jeering bark out of one side of the mouth,
and swung her miraculously through a closing space between two other
couples. "You know a lot about what goes on, don't you? You prob'ly
think there's no other place to dance in this town except these
frozen-face joints."

"'Frozen face?'" she echoed, laughing. "Why, everybody's having a
splendid time. Look at them."

"Oh, they holler loud enough," he said. "They do it to make each other
think they're havin' a good time. You don't call that Palmer family
frozen-face berries, I s'pose. No?"

"Certainly not. They're just dignified and----"

"Yeuh!" said Walter. "They're dignified, 'specially when you tried to
whisper to Mildred to show how IN with her you were, and she moved you
on that way. SHE'S a hot friend, isn't she!"

"She didn't mean anything by it. She----"

"Ole Palmer's a hearty, slap you-on-the-back ole berry," Walter
interrupted; adding in a casual tone, "All I'd like, I'd like to hit
him."

"Walter! By the way, you mustn't forget to ask Mildred for a dance
before the evening is over."

"Me?" He produced the lop-sided appearance of his laugh, but without
making it vocal. "You watch me do it!"

"She probably won't have one left, but you must ask her, anyway."

"Why must I?"

"Because, in the first place, you're supposed to, and, in the second
place, she's my most intimate friend."

"Yeuh? Is she? I've heard you pull that 'most-intimate-friend' stuff
often enough about her. What's SHE ever do t