d so
well in her life. She was a large blonde and, when she chose, carried
herself superbly.

After the dinner at the Longmores, she went on to the dance--a little
late--and encountered Bremmil with Mrs. Hauksbee on his arm. That
made her flush, and as the men crowded round her for dances she looked
magnificent. She filled up all her dances except three, and those she
left blank. Mrs. Hauksbee caught her eye once; and she knew it was
war--real war--between them. She started handicapped in the struggle,
for she had ordered Bremmil about just the least little bit in the world
too much; and he was beginning to resent it. Moreover, he had never seen
his wife look so lovely. He stared at her from doorways, and glared at
her from passages as she went about with her partners; and the more he
stared, the more taken was he. He could scarcely believe that this was
the woman with the red eyes and the black stuff gown who used to weep
over the eggs at breakfast.

Mrs. Hauksbee did her best to hold him in play, but, after two dances,
he crossed over to his wife and asked for a dance.

"I'm afraid you've come too late, MISTER Bremmil," she said, with her
eyes twinkling.

Then he begged her to give him a dance, and, as a great favor, she
allowed him the fifth waltz. Luckily 5 stood vacant on his programme.
They danced it together, and there was a little flutter round the room.
Bremmil had a sort of notion that his wife could dance, but he never
knew she danced so divinely. At the end of that waltz he asked for
another--as a favor, not as a right; and Mrs. Bremmil said: "Show me
your programme, dear!" He showed it as a naughty little schoolboy hands
up contraband sweets to a master. There was a fair sprinkling of "H"
on it besides "H" at supper. Mrs. Bremmil said nothing, but she smiled
contemptuously, ran her pencil through 7 and 9--two "H's"--and returned
the card with her own name written above--a pet name that only she and
her husband used. Then she shook her finger at him, and said, laughing:
"Oh, you silly, SILLY boy!"

Mrs. Hauksbee heard that, and--she owned as much--felt that she had the
worst of it. Bremmil accepted 7 and 9 gratefully. They danced 7, and
sat out 9 in one of the little tents. What Bremmil said and what Mrs.
Bremmil said is no concern of any one's.

When the band struck up "The Roast Beef of Old England," the two went
out into the verandah, and Bremmil began looking for his wife's dandy
(this was before