that it was
fairly gay; indeed, rather too gay, owing to more of a mingling than
they approved; but nothing, ah! nothing, to the magnificent
entertainments of times past, which had often been described to them by
their respected parent. (They never seemed to have had but one.)

"Of course you will dance, Anne?" said Rast Pronando.

She smiled an assent, and they were soon among the dancers. Tita, left
alone, followed them with her eyes as they passed out of the fire-light
and were lost in the crowd and the sweeping shadows. Then she made her
way, close to the wall, down to the other end of the long room, where
the commandant's wife and the fort ladies sat in state, keeping up the
dignity of what might be called the military end of the apartment. Here
she sought the brightest light she could find, and placed herself in it
carelessly, and as though by chance, to watch the dancers.

"Look at that child," said the captain's wife. "What an odd little thing
it is!"

"It is Tita Douglas, Anne's little sister," said Mrs. Bryden, the wife
of the commandant. "I am surprised they allowed her to come in that
tableau dress. Her mother was a French girl, I believe. Dr. Douglas, you
know, came to the island originally as surgeon of the post."

"There is Anne now, and dancing with young Pronando, of course," said
the wife of one of the lieutenants.

"Dr. Gaston thinks there is no one like Anne Douglas," observed Mrs.
Bryden. "He has educated her almost entirely; taught her Latin and
Greek, and all sorts of things. Her father is a musical genius, you
know, and in one way the girl knows all about music; in another, nothing
at all. Do you think she is pretty, Mrs. Cromer?"

Mrs. Cromer thought "Not at all; too large, and--unformed in every way."

"I sometimes wonder, though, why she is not pretty," said Mrs. Bryden,
in a musing tone. "She ought to be."

"I never knew but one girl of that size and style who was pretty, and
she had had every possible advantage of culture, society, and foreign
travel; wore always the most elaborately plain costumes--works of art,
in a Greek sort of way; said little; but sat or stood about in
statuesque attitudes that made you feel thin and insignificant, and glad
you had all your clothes on," said Mrs. Cromer.

"And was this girl pretty?"

"She was simply superb," said the captain's wife. "But do look at young
Pronando. How handsome he is to-night!"

"An Apollo Belvedere," said the wife of the