ood watching them timidly.

"Hallo, Nell! What's the matter?" asked Dick.

She opened her eyes and rose instantly, struggling with all a woman's
courage beating in her heart to renew the fight, to play her part to the
end of that never--never-ending night.

"Nothing, nothing. I am just a little tired, I think."

At this moment Drake came up.

"This is my dance, Nell," he said. His face, his voice were grave, for
his soul was still disquieted within him. "I have been looking for
you----"

He stopped suddenly and put out his hand, for her face had grown white
again. She had raised her eyes to his for a moment with the look of a
dumb animal in pain; but she lowered them instantly and bent aside to
take up her dress.

"I am tired," she said, forcing a smile. "The heat--could we not go
home? I--I mean, Dick and I--there is no need for you----"

"Yes, yes; at once; this instant!" he said. "Wait while I get you some
water--wait----"

He went off quickly, and Nell turned to Dick.

"Will you order the fly, Dick?" she said, in a tone that was quite new
to him.

It was, though the boy did not know it, the voice of the woman who has
just parted with her girlhood.

"Don't wait, please. I shall be all right."

Dick left her, and Miss Angel came down to her timidly.

"Is there anything I can do--I know what it is. You feel faint----"

Nell smiled.

"God grant you may never know what it is," she thought, looking up at
the girl's face, and feeling years and years older than she.

"Perhaps it is," she said. "But I shall be all right the moment I get
into the air."

Miss Angel whipped off her shawl, which Dick had insisted upon her
wearing.

"Come with me--you can wait just outside the hall. I know what it is;
you want to get outside at once--at once!"

Nell went out with her, and as she felt the cool, fresh air, she drew a
breath of relief; then she turned to the girl.

"I am all right now; you must not wait. I have your wrap----"

Dick came up with the fly, and Drake appeared with her cloak and a glass
of wine. He had got his hat and coat as he came along. She drank some of
the wine, and turned to hold out her hand to the girl and wish her good
night and thank her.

"I am quite, quite right now!" Drake heard her say; and his fears--for
to a man a woman's fainting fit is a terrible thing--were somewhat
dispelled.

They got into the fly, and it drove off. Nell, instead of sinking into
the corner, sat bolt