measure they might
recapture youth and slimness if only they worked hard enough. Now and then
a girl sang a snatch of the tune in a clear young voice, full of abandon,
and sometimes others took up the song and it rose triumphant above the
music of the orchestra for a moment, only to be lost again as the singers
danced apart.

Ramon had been looking forward so long and with such intense anticipation
to his dance with Julia Roth that he was a little self-conscious at its
beginning, but this feeling was abolished by the discovery that they could
dance together perfectly. He danced in silence, looking down upon her
yellow head and white shoulders, the odour of her hair filling his
nostrils, forgetful of everything but the sensuous delight of the moment.

This mood of solemn rapture was evidently not shared by her, for presently
the yellow head was thrown back, and she smiled up at him a bit mockingly.

"Just like on the train," she remarked. "Not a thing to say for yourself.
Are you always thus silent?"

Ramon grinned.

"No," he countered, "I was just trying to get up the nerve to ask if
you'll let me come to see you."

"That doesn't take much nerve," she assured him. "Practically every man
I've danced with tonight has asked me that. I never had so many dates
before in my life."

"Well; may I follow the crowd, then?"

"You may," she laughed. "Or call me up first, and maybe there won't be any
crowd."

CHAPTER V

His mother and sister had left early, for which fact he was thankful. He
walked home alone with his hat in his hand, letting the cold wind of early
morning blow on his hot brow. Punch and music and dancing had filled him
with a delightful excitement. He felt glad of life and full of power. He
could have gone on walking for hours, enjoying the rhythm of his stride
and the gorgeous confusion of his thoughts, but in a remarkably short time
he had covered the mile to his house in Old Town.

It was a long, low _adobe_ with a paintless and rickety wooden verandah
along its front, and with deep-set, iron-barred windows looking upon the
square about which Old Town was built. Delcasars had lived in this house
for over a century. Once it had been the best in town. Now it was an
antiquity pointed out to tourists. Most of the Mexicans who had money had
moved away from Old Town and built modern brick houses in New Town. But
this was an expensive proceeding. The old _adobe_ ho