tly enjoy the
dancing for dancing's sake, and they all look as if they were
thoroughly enjoying themselves. Whereas here, people dance as if it
was rather a painful duty than otherwise, and there is a general
expression of a longing for the whole thing to be over."

"I enjoy the dancing," Bertha said, sturdily. "At least, when I get
a really good partner."

"Yes, but then you have only been three months at it. You have not
got broken into the business yet."

"Nor have you, Major Mallett."

"No, but while you are an actor in the piece, I am but a spectator,
and lookers-on, you know, see most of the game."

"What nonsense! Don't pretend you are getting to be a blase man. I
know that you are only about ten years older than I am--not more
than nine, I think--and you dance very well, and no doubt you know
it."

"I like dancing, I can assure you, where there is room to dance;
but I don't call it dancing when you have an area of only a foot
square to dance in, and are hustled and bumped more than you would
be in a crowded Lord Mayor's show. My training has not suited me
for it, and I would rather stand and look on, listen to scraps of
conversation, watch the faces of the dancers and of those standing
round. It is a study, and I think it shows one of the worst sides
of nature. It is quite shocking to see and hear the envy,
uncharitableness, the boredom, and the desperate efforts to look
cheerful under difficulties, especially among the girls that do not
get partners."

"For shame! I am disappointed in you," Bertha said, half in jest,
half in earnest. "You are not at all the person I thought you were.
Whatever I may have fancied about you, I never imagined you a cynic
or a grumbler."

"I suppose it brings out the worst side of my nature, too," he laughed.
"When you come down on board the Osprey, Miss Greendale, you will see
the other side. I fancy one falls into the tone of one's surroundings.
Here I have caught the tone of the bored man of society, there you
will see that I shall be a breezy sailor--cheerful in storm or in calm,
ready to take my glass and to toast my lass and all the rest of it in
true nautical fashion."

"I hope so," she said, gravely. "I shall certainly need something
of the sort to correct the very unfavourable impression you have
just been giving me. Now let us change the subject. You have not
told me yet whether you had any flirtations in India."

"Flirtations!" he repeated. "For once, the s