ke much notice of his mother, contenting
himself with telling her that she "looked as smart as any of 'em." But
he stood and talked to Cicely, and his eyes rested on her as if he were
proud of her.

In the meantime the delicious strains of a valse were swinging through
the great room, and the smooth floor was full of dancers, except in the
space reserved for the royalties, where only a few couples were
circling. Cicely's feet were moving. "Can't we dance, Dick?" she said.

"Come on," said Dick, "let's have a scurry," and he led her down on to
the floor and floated her out into a paradise of music and movement.
Dick was the best partner she had ever danced with. He had often snubbed
her about her own dancing, but he had danced with her all the same, more
than most brothers dance with their sisters, at country balls, which
were the only balls she had ever been to. He was a kind brother,
according to his lights, and Cicely would have liked to dance with him
all the evening.

That, of course, was out of the question. Dick knew plenty of people to
dance with to-night, if she didn't. In fact, he seemed to know half the
people in the room, although he gave her the impression that he thought
Court Balls rather mixed affairs. "Can't be certain of meeting your
friends here," he said, and added, "of course," as admitting handsomely
that people might be quite entitled to be asked who did not happen to be
his friends. "You're not the only country cousins, Siskin," he said,
which gave Cicely somehow a higher opinion of herself, his dissociation
of himself in this matter of country cousinhood from his family striking
her as nothing unreasonable. Indeed, it was not unreasonable with regard
to the Clintons, the men taking their part, as a matter of course, in
everything to which their birth and wealth entitled them, so long as
they cared to do so, the women living, for the most part, at home, in a
wide and airy seclusion.

"Want to dance, eh?" said Dick, in answer to her little plea. "All
right, I'll bring up some young fellows."

And he did. He brought up a succession of them and delivered them
off-hand to his mother and sister with a slight air of authority, doing
his duty very thoroughly, as a kind brother should.

Most of them were quite young--as young, or younger than Cicely herself.
Some of them wore the uniform of Dick's own regiment, and were
presumably under his orders, professionally if not in private life. Some
of the