grace and courtesy, but it was a relief when it was over. At
her request, Walcott escorted her to a seat near her aunt, then
smilingly withdrew with much inward self-congratulation.

At that moment Darrell, seeing Kate unengaged, hastened to her side.

"You look warm and the air here is oppressive," he said, observing her
flushed face and fanning her gently; "shall we go outside for a few
moments?"

"Yes, please; anywhere out of this heat and glare," she answered; "my
temples throb as if they would burst and my face feels as though it were
on fire!"

Darrell hastened to the hall, returning an instant later with a light
wrap which he proceeded to throw about Kate's shoulders.

"You are tired, Katherine," said Mrs. Dean, "more tired than you realize
now; you had better not dance any more to-night."

"I have but two more dances, auntie," the young girl answered, smiling;
"you surely would not wish me to forego those;" adding, in a lower tone,
as she turned towards Darrell, "one of them is your waltz, and I would
not miss that for anything!"

They passed through the hall and out upon a broad balcony. They could
hear the subdued laughter of couples strolling through the brightly
lighted grounds below, while over the distant landscape shone the pale
weird light of the waning moon, just rising in the east. None of the
guests had discovered the balcony opening from the hall on the third
floor, so they had it exclusively to themselves.

As Darrell drew Kate's arm closer within his own he was surprised to
feel her trembling slightly, while the hand lying on his own was cold as
marble.

"My dear child!" he exclaimed; "your hands are cold and you are
trembling! What is the matter--are you cold?"

"No, not cold exactly, only shivery," she answered, with a laugh. "My
head was burning up in there, and I feel sort of hot flashes and then a
creepy, shivery feeling by turns; but I am not cold out here, really,"
she added, earnestly, as Darrell drew her wrap more closely about her.

"Nevertheless, I cannot allow you to stay out here any longer," Darrell
replied, finding his first taste of masculine authority very sweet.

For an instant Kate felt a very feminine desire to put his authority to
the test, but the sense of his protection and his solicitude for her
welfare seemed particularly soothing just then, and so, with only a
saucy little smile, she silently allowed him to lead her into the house.
At his suggestion, however,